The term "square" can be interpreted in three ways. First, it is about the square, in a literal, but also metaphorical sense, that is, the place where people meet to trade, exchange opinions, and have social contacts. Second, the same word denotes the rectangle as a geometric shape, so the space is bounded by clear, predefined edges. Thirdly, the same word is used in the slang for the conservative, not so much in the socio-political sense, how much in the sense of a person who very rarely leaves his restricted area of comfort.
Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund, who won the global attention in the Un Certain Jury award at the Cannes 2014 for his film ''The Tourist'', will deal with all three meanings of the mentioned term in his new film.
The title of the film is also the title of the conceptual exhibition / performance that Östlund's hero, curator of the contemporary art museum Christian (Bang) carefully prepares. This exhibition will, by its very announcement, promote the interests of local media and world art circles, so the crazy and lucid American journalist Anne (Moss) and esteemed British artist Julian (West) and various other people, who will, by half understanding what they are saying, trample on art as a lever for changing the world and deepening the dialogue and similar floskulas freed of true meaning.
Christian, of course, is the king of this small world and his "square" life is extremely pleasant and arranged according to the rules. He is the perfect Swedish non-violent man in a luxury electric car who is delighted to delegate his work to others, avoiding closing his hands, literally and metaphorically. He is so in love with his status, very paranoid about anything that could bring down his perfect life. And as such he is destined to fall ...
His fall is taking place at both levels, both business and private, and is conditioned by events that are associated with simple coincidence. The mistake he made in the job was to let the two ''squares'' from the marketing department create and launch a campaign for an exhibition that would be loaded politically incorrect and racist sub-tones, although those idiots only wanted to shock and make something unexpected. The scenes with the two of them and their pitch will prove to be valuable, especially to viewers who haven't carefully watched the film because they openly offer them the "key" to expect unexpectedly in every scene, even though the film was still under the same logic.
The second fall, both personal and moral, begins earlier in the film, with a pickpocket where Christian is a victim. His first reaction is anger, and the other is not to be a perfect, non-violent Swedish man above his gender roles and to do something. However, he is clumsy and undecided as it is already, and wit the the help of friends, he locates the cell phone and writes a threatening letter to everyone in the building in question, let's say, the less elite part of Stockholm. His belongings will be returned, but his actions will lead to incalculable consequences in that story of an innocent boy (a brilliant Elijandro Edouard) who will escalate from another turn, fingering the sharp Christian's attitude and the savage conscience that is increasingly overtaking him.
While these two plots take place at a very moderate pace,aand our hero is increasingly losing ground under our feet, we will be watching a series of crooked, seemingly unrelated vintages.
On the backdrop, the world of high art is obsessed with itself and its illusion of importance, but also a modern society that has replaced the dialogue on important topics with the mask of political correctness and the ideology of non-alignment. So we will testify to the weirdly ridiculous scenes, sometimes spontaneous, sometimes in the Christian direction, in which, like the great British artist, he is deconcentrated by the dumb implosion of a man with real or fingered Tourette's syndrome, or gala-night guests are confronted with a man who ultimately behaves like a primate (stuntman and motion capture actor Terry Notary).
Cold aesthetics and precision-mounted cameras resemble Haneke and his mission of testing, creating and amplifying the fears of the bourgeoisie. The structure of short stories in which under bizarre affair is somewhat superstitious similar to Roy Andersson, while Bunuel's recollection material invokes Ballard's literary "matter of fact" methodology and "twist" in the Monty Python range of the best days. Östlund, however, remains true to himself and "The Square" can really be interpreted as the further elaboration of the central theme of the "Turist" (male cowardice by selfishness) raised to an even higher level, and when it comes to humor and when it comes to drama and implications.
Note: This was my translation from Croatian to English from Lupiga article ''The Square- Ovo je definitivno jedan od filmova godine''