Ruben Östlund (Sweden, 1974)

Seems like the Swedish director Ruben Ostlünd loves to display awkward situations, when people are most psychologically vulnerable. In his De ofrivilliga [Involuntary] (2008), which is brilliant by the way, he deals with the consequences of peer pressure. The piece lays bare the stubbornness or plain stupidity of people. Simply great film.

In his masterpiece Play (2011), Östlund exposes the real story of the extortion of some innocent, white rich-kids by a gang of clever, dark-skinned children in Sweden, a few years ago. I actually remember rooting for the gang, because of their smart psychological games and the fact that they never use threats or violence. The film could be easily one of the stories out of Michael Haneke’s ingenious Code inconnu: Récit incomplet de divers voyages [Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys] (2000).

His new project, Tourist (2014) pretends to be about a happy family that goes skiing in the mountains. Then, suddenly, there is an avalanche and the father does something stupid, out of cowardice, something he will be really sorry about later on. Sounds like one hell of a good movie.