The Square

It's supposed to be the big prestige project for Christian (Claes bang), the chief curator of one of Stockholm's biggest museums: the exhibition The Square, which sets up a moral sanctuary to question the dwindling trust in our society as a community. But after Christian has his wallet stolen on his way to work, it leads to a series of bad decisions that completely call into question not only his professional future, but his own view of society.

Ruben Östlund's Cannes winner The Square really is a tough case. There are really numerous moments that make you understand why the jury chose to award the Palme d'Or to this satirical drama. And then again, you see things that make this award seem more than questionable. Why does the journalist Anne have a monkey at her home? Doesn't matter, the main thing is that it seems kind of weird. It's moments like this as much as unbearably drawn-out scenes that rob the film of its actual impact.

Best example of this is the gorilla performance by artist Oleg Rogozijn, which completely escalates after an amusing beginning. This sequence is extremely unpleasant to watch in itself, but it never finds an end, as it feels, so at some point it just doesn't matter what the filmmaker was trying to say with it - you're just glad it's finally over. That's a shame, because not only are some of the obvious satirical moments really great. The core message of the story is also really good and should make the audience think about their own actions in certain everyday situations.

The basic idea for The Square comes from an art object that director Ruben Östlund together with Kalle Boman showed in southern Sweden in 2014. It is - as in the film - about humanitarian values, about trust and about willingness to help. These are themes that seem to become more important by the day. And that's why The Square is, at its core, a thoroughly important film that also has decent entertainment value in about 90 minutes of its 145 far-too-long minutes. It's a shame that the film ultimately gets bogged down in overly pretentious inanities that will please the feuilleton but probably bore most moviegoers. Still, the good moments are strong enough that lovers of enigmatic arthouse satires can safely pick up a movie ticket here. Worth seeing

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp