Force Majeure

An avalanche disrupts a Swedish family's skiing holiday in Ruben Ostlund's latest feature.

Swedes have ample reason for a bit of cinematic swagger at the moment, with Roy Andersson recently joined by Ruben Östlund as a force on the world stage. For Östlund, whose short Incident by a Bank screened some Flatpacks ago, the aim is often to provoke, to ask tricky ethical questions that get under your skin. Perhaps not ideal first date material, his work has a tendency to stir up animated post- screening arguments. Force Majeure is no exception.

Östlund started out directing ski films, and here he returns to that territory. We join a smart, well-off family in the Alps, where a domestic unravelling is triggered by the father’s apparently selfish response to an avalanche. This moment is spectacularly rendered in one take, but it’s the subsequent emotional fireworks that will leave the film lodged in your mind.