January 04, 2023
Stockholm: Swedish director Ruben Ostlund is aiming to get his famously straight-faced compatriots out of their seats with a special screening of Palme d´Or-winning satire "Triangle of Sadness".
Spectators will be asked to provide the provocateur filmmaker with details about themselves in a form before the showing later this month, and will be pushed to interact with the movie.
"Compared to countries like France and the US, the Nordics have a more passive audience culture", the two-time Palme d´Or winner said in a statement.
"Here we hide in our seats, taking less responsibility for the show", he said, adding that "after screenings we go home without discussing what we´ve seen".
The screening is set for January 28 at the Gothenburg Film Festival in Sweden.
Ostlund, 48, said that watching a film together "intensifies the experience and sets a higher standard for what´s shown on the screen".
"For cinematic culture to flourish and reach its full potential, the audience must understand the part they play", he said.
"Triangle of Sadness", a sharp satire about class conflict, won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival in May this year.
The win put Ostlund among a select group of two-time winners of the top prize at Cannes. He first scooped the Palme in 2017 for "The Square".