Slitage /Seeds of the fall Patrik Eklund

Lagom is a Swedish word without an equivalent in any language. Lagom is neither too much nor too little, it’s sufficient, it’s adequate, and sometimes – as in Seeds of the Fall - it’s pointless. Patrik Eklund’s second short to be selected for Cannes is not a bad movie. It’s lagom.

Seeds of the Fall is a cute tale of… yes, what exactly? An excavator drives through the wall of a house, entering the bedroom of an old couple and disrupting their bedtime quarrels. The incident also involves the neighbouring, younger couple, since the excavator kills their beloved cat Jamiroquai.

The aftermath reveals a few secrets and leads to the two couples trying to find a somewhat unusual solution together. Eklund tells his story with a subtle, slightly surreal use of humour, in a Roy Andersson- kind of way, and focuses on small details. He also adds the theme of problematic sex lives, a cover of Massive Attack’s Teardrop and a reference to the sexual fantasies in American Beauty - without making the 17 minutes feel overcrowded. You get a few laughs along the way, but this kind of small town story has been told in this kind of way many times before. And, of course, there’s only one Roy Andersson.

Moa Geistrand