Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West
Fresh from its triumphant Palme d’Or win at the 70th Cannes Film Festival, Ruben Östlund’s The Square is coming to Screening Days. Following his critically adored Force Majeure (2014), it’s a brilliantly funny, bracingly surreal art-world satire starring Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss and Dominic West.
Christian (Bang) is the respected curator of a contemporary art museum in Stockholm. Wanting his gallery to make a splash, he arrives at the idea of ‘The Square’, an installation inviting passersby into a space where they are encouraged to behave responsibly. A few days before the opening of his prestigious exhibition Christian has a disturbing experience he cannot shake off. Seeking revenge, he finds himself in shameful situations while his PR agency’s campaign leads to a full-blown existential crisis for both the man and the museum.
An audacious and outrageously provocative film, The Square also contains more humane notes and an eye for the subtlety of human behaviour amidst its masterly dissection of the pretensions of high art and the occasionally herdlike timidity of its followers.
