The film mainly tells the story of a few young people from Western society who go to a small village in Sweden and are eventually swallowed up by this small community.
Watching this movie, that quote from Marx kept circling in my mind - "The specter of communism roams Europe"
The film is dressed in horror films and is very cleverly conceived, abandoning the traditional horror film techniques and setting most of the scenes in sunny summer. Very innovative. In fact, the film is a reflection on modern capitalist society and a warning.
the collectivism of the village
In this mysterious village, people wear the same white clothes that symbolize purity, speak their own language and have their own script. A completely different set of values developed here than in other Western societies.
People in the village live a collectivist life. Young people here will all sleep under the same roof and have no personal privacy. There is no private property here, everything is public, even babies are co-parented. There is no concept of class, no conflict, all people are equal. The villagers live in a peaceful atmosphere, and everyone performs their own duties and is "happy and happy". Even disabled people are given important responsibilities. It is truly a "Xanadu".
People living in our country must be very familiar with this way of life.
This is very similar to the idea of communism - common ownership of property, no class conflict, equality for all, people choosing their jobs according to their own wishes and abilities. So it always reminds people of the ideal and perfect communist society put forward by Marx.
People here believe in the idea that life is a cycle and that the dead are reborn as babies. There are four seasons in one's life, spring before the age of 18, and winter until the age of 72. At the age of 72, one must end one's own life. This is also the most terrifying scene in the film - the old man jumping off the cliff. Here, even death is equal.
- Conflict with Western capitalist society:
The capitalist society in the West pursues the freedom and rights of the individual, which are sacrosanct and inviolable. Since Smith put forward the great "invisible hand" principle, people's self-interested nature has been regarded as the driving force behind the development of capitalist society.
However, we can also see that egoism comes at the expense of cooperation, a spirit of sharing, and camaraderie between people. The American students portrayed in the film are a good example: they quarreled over the right to write their own papers, were selfish enough to lose the possibility of cooperation, and all acted for their own interests, even at the expense of others. Friendship of companions. The most terrifying thing is the indifference to the safety of the companions' lives.
In villages that believe in collectivism, it is a completely different situation. This society is built on community, and people have strong bonds with their communities. Within this community, individuals are brought together by similar goals and experiences, as well as shared beliefs and values. People are so loyal to this community that they are willing to give their lives for the good of the whole community.
This collective belief puts the traditional spirit at the core: cooperation, mutual benefit, sharing, which will bring people an unprecedented sense of belonging,
This is completely different from individualism, which emphasizes individual rights and freedoms, respects individual privacy, and people act in their own interests.
- Why the heroine?
The heroine is going through the lowest point in her life: bereavement, love with her boyfriend that no longer exists. It seemed that in an instant, she lost everything and could only rely on drugs to relieve anxiety and insomnia.
The broken relationship makes the heroine extremely sentimental and vulnerable, and she comes to this village when she needs support and encouragement the most. With such an experience, it is not surprising that the heroine is attracted to collectivism.
In a capitalist society, people no longer come together because of common beliefs. The loss of collective consciousness and value creates "anomie"—the individual feeling increasingly disconnected from society.
However, in this village, the heroine has received unprecedented support and encouragement. Everyone in this village is closely connected with others, and everyone feels joy, pain and sadness. This emotional support is exactly what the heroine is. required. People who were on the verge of being abandoned in capitalist society found a new spiritual home here.
In the end, the heroine became the Queen of August, was successfully accepted by the village, and sentenced her boyfriend who betrayed her to "death penalty".
- Reflections on Capitalist Society
From the perspective of Western capitalist society, the film observes how individuals in this society are placed in a collectivist society, so as to reveal some of the problems existing in Western society and raise a warning - the increasing proliferation of individuals Liberalism is tearing apart capitalist society.
A major feature of the developed capitalist society is its precise and meticulous division of labor. Society is like a complex organism, and everyone is like a small cell. People have more professional skills and perform their own duties to maintain the functioning of society.
The development of industrial society brought rationalization and secularization, and developed a new form of control, bureaucracy, which restricted individual freedom and confined man to the "cage of reason", and Disrupting traditional human-machine interactions and eroding communities and kinship.
The heroine's sister not only commits suicide, but also takes her parents with her. This broken family relationship is a serious consequence of modern capitalist society.
After capitalism has brought great material abundance, it has also brought a series of social ills, such as the replacement of traditional cultural and spiritual values by rationalization, resulting in a kind of "de-enchantment" consequence - those invisible things in human daily life. The mysterious and mysterious things are replaced by icy calculations.
- Pell's Mission
Pell went to the outside world with a mission. Like the young people in other villages, he went to the outside world to find new blood to keep this small community going. Pell's choice was very careful, not only to bring strong men, but also to find women who might embrace the collective values that the village believed in. In the end he did his job perfectly.
From a Western perspective, the film reflects on some of the drawbacks of capitalism through the depiction of collectivist villages. In contemporary times, although Marxism is no longer as brilliant as it once was, this idea has been exerting a lasting influence and continues to attract a large number of followers.
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