VINTERSAGA

Carl Olsson / Sweden / 2023 / 82 min / World Premiere

The human comedy unfolds in an aesthetically uncompromising and unmistakably Nordic saga in 24 chapters. A film that probes the Scandinavian mind in the dark months with dark humour and a sociological gaze.

If one could take a cinematic x-ray of the Scandinavian state of mind during the winter months, it would look like Carl Olsson’s darkly humourous saga in 24 short chapters. His perfectionist and aesthetically perfect ‘Winter Saga’ is a film that almost established a genre of its own design between sociological analysis and satire, all anchored in the recognisable reality of winter. Each scene is a world in itself, but is also a commentary on (and a thinly veiled letter of love to) the entire human comedy. Over a series of short and long films, Olsson has refined his signature style of static observational tableaux from the welfare state. With ‘Vintersaga’ he has truly found his own voice and – not least – rhythm. For there is indeed a larger narrative in the great puzzle of fragmented scenes and small stories, and it is about all of us. Uncompromisingly and unmistakably Nordic in both style and understated humour.