An insightful and troubling film about race, ethics and manipulation, Ruben Östlund’s Playis based on an actual incident in Gothenburg, Sweden in which a group of black kids manipulated white and Asian teenagers into surrendering their valuables.

Yannick (Yannick Diakité) and his friends target a trio of younger, presumably wealthier kids, two of them from “traditional” Swedish backgrounds and one whose family emigrated from Asia. Eventually, they lure their targets outside the city, where they construct an elaborate ruse to relieve them of their belongings. Filmed entirely in long shot, Play is chilling in its ambiguity. The distance between the viewer and the action happening in the image invests the film with an ominous impenetrability, exacerbated by inchoate assumptions and suspicions about race. The proceedings have the feel of a sociology experiment gone horribly awry.

One of Sweden’s most daring young filmmakers, Östlund is part of a group that has altered the face of Swedish cinema. Play is the most audacious and disturbing film to come out of Sweden since A Hole in My Heart. - Steve Gravestock, Toronto International Film Festival

Winner, Best Director, Tokyo International Film Festival

Winner, Grand Prix, 2 in 1 International Film Festival, Moscow