Three against five. Boys against adolescents. Shy against cheeky. Weak against strong. White against black. Victim, perpetrator. Good cop, bad cop. A simulation game in plan sequences. Ruben Östlund's semi-documentary, sober yet visually captivating Play shows how a group of teenagers relieve some boys of their valuables, not through brute force but in the course of an elaborate, time-consuming scam known to the police as the “Little Brother Number”.
As in his previous feature film De ofrivilliga (2008), the Swedish filmmaker, who was born in 1974, is also interested in the behavior of groups, shifts in power and alternative courses of action in conflict situations in Play. By setting the events exclusively in public spaces this time, Östlund expands his experimental set-up to include the possibility of outside intervention - which is shockingly absent. Play is a reductionist, reflective film that refuses to simply illustrate a certain socio-political discourse in the context of immigration. Instead, it constantly confronts the viewer with inherent contradictions and self-reflexive commentary; the director thus succeeds in softening the boldness of the initial idea and subverting the clichés that make up the plot. Nasty, enigmatic and tragicomic at the same time.
