I was very curious about this film and the director after watching this interview, and the interpretation of the "square" inspiration is even more impressive. Yiliang. The excerpt is as follows:
"The topics that we are trying to deal with are very important but I didn't want to make it a posy,'important' film, "says Ostlund.
The idea came about while Ostlund was making 2011's Play, a seriously unnerving piece based on real-life incidents in Gothenburg in which children were preyed upon by others. "When I read through the court files it was obvious that the'bystander effect' was super-strong. There were over 60 court cases and there was just one when an adult actually walked up and asked: what are you doing?"
Out of that was born the idea of "The Square", an installation piece that in the film appears outside Christian's museum. "My friend Kalle Boman and I came up with the idea to create a symbolic place that should be like a pedestrian crossing. A pedestrian crossing is a fantastic invention; with a couple of lines in the street car drivers accept with this agreement that we should be careful with the pedestrians.
" With'The Square', if someone goes and stands in [it], then it's my obligation to address this person and ask'How can I help you?' In a way it was like a traffic sign for reminding us of our fellow human beings."
And here's the twist: "The Square" is not just a plot device but a real functioning piece of public art. In fact, there are four such squares permanently installed in Sweden and Norway. "The police go there and talk to school children about basic values," says Ostlund with some pride.
So it is a social symbol established by convention . It is similar to a few simple zebra crossings but forms a tacit understanding between drivers and pedestrians. The "square" setting means that others are obliged to ask about the station. What can the people in the square need help? But at the same time, it is estimated that only people in the Nordic countries can come up with this idea, because people respect each other and privacy to a point of indifference-the Finnish(?) people who lined up on Lenovo's previous Internet can stand 10 meters. Far away...In densely populated places, what everyone hopes is to please leave me alone, appeal to respect the boundaries between people, and don’t over-inquire about other people’s things.
View more about The Square reviews
