Play by Ruben Östlund

Play is a film about a gang of five black kids mentally terrorizing three white kids. Not only it displays troubled youngsters and racial issues, it also shows the absent nature of people standing by. The cruel scene in a bus where two gang members beat up their own shows other passengers simply sitting and doing nothing to stop this from happening. What seems to be a situation where it takes only two or three grown-ups to stand-up for the victim, it is instead an unfair scene of society where other people’s problems are not seen as our own.

A more ironic story about a lost cradle is happening parallel to the main plot – traveling on a train the cradle without an owner causes trouble for the staff. Nobody is claiming it and fixing this simple problem seems too difficult and yet again Play puts out a predicament towards society.

There is no doubt that Östlund tackles the more complicated social matters with integrity and although the unraveling of the story in Play slows down in the end, it is definitely worth seeing. More importantly, it is worth learning from as it is a crucial outlook on universal problems and people not helping others.

By Getter Trumsi