A friend of mine asked me, “So, what do you think?” Silence. I thought about this question for a few minutes and nothing came into my mind. How to describe what we had just watched? Complex, funny, ironic, critical. But, what was exactly the message of The Square? After all, it had won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was recently nominated for the Academy Award (a.k.a. the Oscars) for Best Foreign Language Film. I thought more about the film and then I realized what was fascinating about it.

Director Ruben Östlund (Force Majeure, 2014) introduces us to Christian (Claes Bang), the curator of a modern and contemporary art museum in Stockholm. While on his way to work he is robbed. Luckily, he manages to trace his belongings and he plans to get them back. However, things do not go as planned, as the lower-class, which seems strange and distant from him, has now become closer and very present in his life. In-between all this, Christian disregards his work at the museum, which results in a viral promotion video that causes even more problems for him. At the same time, he deals with Anne (Elisabeth Moss), a peculiar and distressed lover.

Beggars, thieves and homeless people are part of the city landscape but these are ignored by high-income individuals such as Christian who, through all these circumstances, becomes aware of this environment which reveals us significant information about him. Initially, he does not notice these homeless people but later on, he sees them and ‘profits’ from them. If one looks to all the scenes with homeless people, it appears that Christian just uses them when it suits him. For instance, in one scene at the mall, he cannot find his daughters, as he was watching a video and not paying attention. Then, he asks a homeless person to watch over his bags while he looks for his daughters. Why would he need a person to hold his bags? The answer is convenience. He is used to it. And, while no one wanted to help him, the homeless man is the only option left for him.

Christian is an influential person who thinks highly of himself, but, even though he is aware of the whole inequality/discrimination issue, he does not use his power to solve it. On the contrary, he seems immersed in his own bubble but so does the whole world which keeps ignoring the issue of homelessness. The film analyses power and what it means to have power: economic, romantic or parental power.

The Square looks critically to the high-class in society and the world of expensive modern and contemporary art by not only showing us the process and sort-of behind the scenes of such a museum but by exaggerating the situation that reinforces the grouping of individuals who feel threatened. In this case, the high-class fears losing power, as Christian remarks to a daring boy that he does not belong in Christian’s house and that he should go back to his own neighbourhood. Christian delineates the borders of the social classes and hence the socio-economic power within. The master scene behind this reflection is when a performer (Terry Notary) tests the limits of the high-class by acting like a monkey in a fancy dining room and annoying the guests. Here, they all come together against the threat (the performer) while at the beginning they were intimidated (a fear for the strange). However, just at the moment when the animal-act seems to have won, the community stands up and rebels against him – reinforcing (and preserving) their power above the performer.

The cinematography and background music delight us with shots that you will surely remember, not only by its composition but also by the absurdity of the situation. In short, what is compelling about this film is the way on how all these circumstances describe Christian in detail and at the same time these situations address a bigger issue (power relations, poverty, discrimination). The film is not to passively consume but to reflect on it.

 

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 monkeys

Director: Ruben Östlund

Main Cast: Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Terry Notary, Dominic West

Year: 2017

Runtime: 151 min.

Genre: Satirical Drama, Comedy, Drama

Country: Sweden |Germany |France | Denmark

Language: English, Swedish, Danish

Initial release date:  20 May 2017 (Cannes), 25 August 2017 (Sweden)

 

Trailer | Image: monkey business – Image provided by Film Depot.