15/05/2016 - CANNES 2016: The Swedish director, who won Un Certain Regard in 2014, talked about his new film at Cannes, revealing its cast and crew; it is toplined by US actress Elisabeth Moss

Swedish director Ruben Östlund, whose Force Majeure [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile] won the top prize in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2014 and was nominated for a Golden Globe, will shoot his sixth feature, The Square [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile], between June and October 2016 in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Berlin.

US actress Elisabeth Moss, who won a Golden Globe in 2013 for her performance in the Top of the Lake TV series and most recently starred in US director Jason Lew’s The Free World (2016), will star alongside Danish actors Claes Bang (Sibel & Max, The Bridge) and Christopher Læssø, and Swedish actress Marina Schiptjenko.

In Östlund’s original screenplay – “a humorous study of morality and higher ideals” – Moss will play an ambitious museum director determined to make a huge impact on the international art world with a spectacular exhibition. The Square will be produced by Erik Hemmendorff, for Sweden’s Plattform Production (which also staged Force Majeure).

“I want to shed light on the confidence crack that is slowly but surely widening between people when society is becoming increasingly individualistic and higher ideals are being sacrificed, using the international art world as a contemporary backdrop,” explained Östlund as he introduced the project at Cannes yesterday (14 May).

His crew for the Swedish-French-German co-production is almost fully intact from Force Majeure – besides Hemmendorff, production designer Josefin Åsberg, cinematographer Fredrik Wenzel (who won a Guldbagge Award for his work) and editor Jacob Schulsinger are also on board.

Plattform will produce with Swedish regional film centre Film Väst, France’s Coproduction Office-Paris (Philippe Bober, who is also handling the international sales), Société Parisienne de Production, Germany’s Essential Film, ARTE and Swedish pubcaster SVT. The Square will be released in 2017.