2018 Oscar Nominees - Foreign Film Category: The Square

in #oscar7 years ago (edited)


I'm starting an Oscar Nominees series here on Steemit. I'm gonna write critics about the movies that nominated for the 90th Oscar Awards.

First movie I want to talk about is from the Foreign Movies Category: The Square from Sweden.

But first quick little trivia time:

Tears of Swedish Filmmaker Ruben Östlund


This video above was from 2015. Swedish director Ruben Östlund and his producer watching Oscar Nomination Announcements and waiting for to get nominated with their film Force Majeure. Didn't happen. Couple days ago Academy finally nominated Ruben Östlund's film The Square as one of the best foreign films of 2017. I posted the whole nomination list here on Steemit. You can check that list here.

Ruben Östlund is one of the brightest Swedish filmmakers in the 21st century. His first film I've watched was Play which was about real cases of bullies in Sweden. After I've watched it I thought he has a really good eye about social reality issues. Right after Play, I found his short film Incident By A Bank which is also based on a true bank robbing story. Östlund won Golden Bear at Berlin International Film Festival with his short film. It was showing a really great perspective and a distant observation opportunity to an incident that occured in a bank. You should definitely check that one out aswell.


In 2014, Östlund has started to recognized much more with his latest film Force Majeure. I've watched it at a film festival here in Istanbul at that time and I thought he is only getting better with his storytelling. Force Majeure had this unique Östlund-esque perspective about the family relationship and man/woman differences. Some would say Östlund is basicly the successor of Ingmar Bergman's storytelling. And The Square is the successor of Force Majeure.

The Square says a lot about the times we are living in a modern society and yet film encourages everybody to have their own ideas about what exactly it is saying. Some might say it's a definition of a vague film which wants to say a lot of things about lot of things but this is where Östlund's ingenious comes in. Östlund wants you to confront your own values.

This is the basic idea about The Square. I mean a literal proper 4x4 diameters square infront of the royal palace as a contemporary art piece. Chief curator of that museum, Christian prepares to host a conceptual art project called The Square as a sanctuary of trust and caring. Within it we all share equal rights and obligations. 

It actually reminds me one of our own short film about a square. Our square was a symbol for escaping a modern society. Östlund's square is actually and definitely way better than ours. If you want to watch it it's here :)

Östlund's Square is questioning the human race's natural state and suggests that it will tend towards an equilibrium and fairness. But when such thinking meets real world, chaos rises and things become complicated. In the end, The Square questions our understanding of honest, trust and fellowship.

The Square has a lot of set pieces but perhaps the most impressive one occurs at the gala dinner which is interrupted by a man acting like an ape. It was entertaining at first but eventually became terrifying. Same scene again reitirates the same questions: When left to its own devices, does human race find the balance or does it disintegrate?

The Square has a remarkably clearheaded and streamlined way of asking these many questions, but the answers it provides are always unclear.

Trailer of The Square

Will The Square win an Oscar over other foreign film nominees? I sure hope so. But it all depends on Academy Members :)

Thanks for reading.

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