2012 Top Ten Films of the Year: #9 King of Devil's Island (Kongen av Bastøy)

 

KING OF DEVIL’S ISLAND (Kongen av Bastøy)           A-             

Norway  Sweden  Poland  France  (120 mi)  2010  ‘Scope  d:  Marius Holst

A different side of Scandinavian films that we rarely see, one that is as brutally harsh as the bleak wintry landscape, where fortitude is built by learning how to survive in the worst circumstances, where in this part of the world surviving the elements is a continual test of character.  Based on a true story in 1915, set on the island of Bastøy on the North Sea inlet south of Oslo, they run an Alcatraz style prison for delinquent boys, where some may be orphans, some have mental health issues, others may have been caught for petty crimes, or may just be poor, but boys from 8 to 18 languish on this penal colony for years paying a kind of eternal penitence, where getting lost in the system is an understatement, as their release depends upon the discretion of the sadistic Governor in charge, Stellan Skarsgård, who firmly believes hard work and a firm stick will somehow transform these unruly boys into model citizens.  His job is to mold them into compliant citizens that obey rules and follow orders.  The truthful severity of the brutal acts against children make this kind of film off limits to American filmmakers, as this honestly exposes a kind of monstrous inhumanity within Norway’s own history that’s missing in American films.  Some of the best remembered prison films are A MAN ESCAPED (1956), THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963), COOL HAND LUKE (1967), IF… (1968), ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975), SHAWHANK REDEMPTION (1994), where each one raises the question of prisoner escape, seen by the other inmates as an act of heroics, yet not so the warden who must make an example to deter similar actions, resorting to ruthless measures if caught, making one think twice about ever doing it again.  Each of these movies suggests men can only endure so much torture and relentless oppression, resorting to wit and bravery to conjure up improbable acts of escape, but not so here, as someone instead irrationally refuses to escape when the door is left wide open, where this may have you on the edge of your seat.

Unraveling as a story within a story, where a young harpooner aboard a Moby Dick style whaling ship marvels at the endurance of a whale that has been shot 3 times, yet still manages to elude them throughout most of the day, a theme turned back upon the humans, as it is their own beastly behavior that takes centerstage in this film.  With the arrival of two new inmates, a burly young sailor Erling (Benjamin Helstad) immediately disrupts the balance of power by challenging the status quo, threatening escape almost immediately, which places the other boys in jeopardy, especially Olav (Trond Nilssen), who is given responsibility over his dormitory as he’s expecting his release soon, considered a model prisoner.  What’s especially interesting is the interplay between these two, as they are polar opposites with uniquely compelling viewpoints.  They immediately test one another with a kind of LORD OF THE FLIES (1963) psychological battle of wits, while at the same time the Governor is testing the rebellious nature of Erling, continually adding harsher work details which makes his workmates miserable, but he continually takes the brunt of it, routinely given added punishments where he’s mindlessly ordered to move a pile of rocks ten feet away into another pile, only to be instructed afterwards to move them all back again.  The viewer soon discovers the island is a child labor camp, where they perform farming and forestry work details, with society getting a special bonus out of their cheap labor.  Except for the leads, most of the kids are non-professionals, where with little dialogue the director subtly weaves into the fabric a sense of community from the boys point of view, as they’re all victims of the same inhumane living conditions, where what’s missing is the capacity to look out for one another.       

What’s especially effective is the gorgeous ‘Scope camerawork from John Andreas Andersen whose sweeping panoramas and wintry landscapes look brutally cold, where winter never looked harsher and more ominous, where these are boys, after all, continually punished and brutalized in the name of some utterly fictitious social good, the Governor’s goal of making them “honorable, humble, and useful Christian boys,” as if he could beat them into submission.  While the tense build up of the inevitable rebellion may be held back too long, as there’s little doubt the floodgates at some point will open, when they do it comes with a flurry, all precipitated by extreme abuse to the weakest among them, a boy violated by the housemaster, Kristoffer Joner, in a role reminiscent of Donald Sutherland’s sick portrayal of a fascist baby killer in Bertolucci’s 1900, especially when the peasants turn on him.  So it’s not heroics but abuse of power, a cowardly cover up, where contemptible lies are met with anger and disgust, which has an initial liberating effect, but a bit like Haneke’s FUNNY GAMES (1997), the initial wave of hope is crushed with even harsher and more barbaric methods, making things seem hopeless before a sea change of communal emotion comes swiftly crashing through the gates like a raging flood, an apocalyptic response to the torrent of sins heaped upon them.  The chaos that follows is just that, a sprawling, sweeping flow of events that comes to resemble the image of that wounded whale ferociously fighting for its last gasp of freedom.  Holst is at his best in the extremely personal finale, pitch perfect and beautifully staged, thrilling to watch, where he judiciously takes his time allowing events to play out, becoming a poetic reverie of innocence lost.  Shot mostly in Estonia, the music by Johan Soderqvist is especially captivating, offering a somber lament at exactly the right moment, adding a layer of quiet intimacy to a beautifully accomplished film.

King of Devil's Island (Kongen av Bastøy)

KING OF DEVIL’S ISLAND (Kongen av Bastøy)           A-             

Norway  Sweden  Poland  France  (120 mi)  2010  ‘Scope  d:  Marius Holst

A different side of Scandinavian films that we rarely see, one that is as brutally harsh as the bleak wintry landscape, where fortitude is built by learning how to survive in the worst circumstances, where in this part of the world surviving the elements is a continual test of character.  Based on a true story in 1915, set on the island of Bastøy on the North Sea inlet south of Oslo, they run an Alcatraz style prison for delinquent boys, where some may be orphans, some have mental health issues, others may have been caught for petty crimes, or may just be poor, but boys from 8 to 18 languish on this penal colony for years paying a kind of eternal penitence, where getting lost in the system is an understatement, as their release depends upon the discretion of the sadistic Governor in charge, Stellan Skarsgård, who firmly believes hard work and a firm stick will somehow transform these unruly boys into model citizens.  His job is to mold them into compliant citizens that obey rules and follow orders.  The truthful severity of the brutal acts against children make this kind of film off limits to American filmmakers, as this honestly exposes a kind of monstrous inhumanity within Norway’s own history that’s missing in American films.  Some of the best remembered prison films are A MAN ESCAPED (1956), THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963), COOL HAND LUKE (1967), IF… (1968), ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975), SHAWHANK REDEMPTION (1994), where each one raises the question of prisoner escape, seen by the other inmates as an act of heroics, yet not so the warden who must make an example to deter similar actions, resorting to ruthless measures if caught, making one think twice about ever doing it again.  Each of these movies suggests men can only endure so much torture and relentless oppression, resorting to wit and bravery to conjure up improbable acts of escape, but not so here, as someone instead irrationally refuses to escape when the door is left wide open, where this may have you on the edge of your seat.

Unraveling as a story within a story, where a young harpooner aboard a Moby Dick style whaling ship marvels at the endurance of a whale that has been shot 3 times, yet still manages to elude them throughout most of the day, a theme turned back upon the humans, as it is their own beastly behavior that takes centerstage in this film.  With the arrival of two new inmates, a burly young sailor Erling (Benjamin Helstad) immediately disrupts the balance of power by challenging the status quo, threatening escape almost immediately, which places the other boys in jeopardy, especially Olav (Trond Nilssen), who is given responsibility over his dormitory as he’s expecting his release soon, considered a model prisoner.  What’s especially interesting is the interplay between these two, as they are polar opposites with uniquely compelling viewpoints.  They immediately test one another with a kind of LORD OF THE FLIES (1963) psychological battle of wits, while at the same time the Governor is testing the rebellious nature of Erling, continually adding harsher work details which makes his workmates miserable, but he continually takes the brunt of it, routinely given added punishments where he’s mindlessly ordered to move a pile of rocks ten feet away into another pile, only to be instructed afterwards to move them all back again.  The viewer soon discovers the island is a child labor camp, where they perform farming and forestry work details, with society getting a special bonus out of their cheap labor.  Except for the leads, most of the kids are non-professionals, where with little dialogue the director subtly weaves into the fabric a sense of community from the boys point of view, as they’re all victims of the same inhumane living conditions, where what’s missing is the capacity to look out for one another.       

What’s especially effective is the gorgeous ‘Scope camerawork from John Andreas Andersen whose sweeping panoramas and wintry landscapes look brutally cold, where winter never looked harsher and more ominous, where these are boys, after all, continually punished and brutalized in the name of some utterly fictitious social good, the Governor’s goal of making them “honorable, humble, and useful Christian boys,” as if he could beat them into submission.  While the tense build up of the inevitable rebellion may be held back too long, as there’s little doubt the floodgates at some point will open, when they do it comes with a flurry, all precipitated by extreme abuse to the weakest among them, a boy violated by the housemaster, Kristoffer Joner, in a role reminiscent of Donald Sutherland’s sick portrayal of a fascist baby killer in Bertolucci’s 1900, especially when the peasants turn on him.  So it’s not heroics but abuse of power, a cowardly cover up, where contemptible lies are met with anger and disgust, which has an initial liberating effect, but a bit like Haneke’s FUNNY GAMES (1997), the initial wave of hope is crushed with even harsher and more barbaric methods, making things seem hopeless before a sea change of communal emotion comes swiftly crashing through the gates like a raging flood, an apocalyptic response to the torrent of sins heaped upon them.  The chaos that follows is just that, a sprawling, sweeping flow of events that comes to resemble the image of that wounded whale ferociously fighting for its last gasp of freedom.  Holst is at his best in the extremely personal finale, pitch perfect and beautifully staged, thrilling to watch, where he judiciously takes his time allowing events to play out, becoming a poetic reverie of innocence lost.  Shot mostly in Estonia, the music by Johan Soderqvist is especially captivating, offering a somber lament at exactly the right moment, adding a layer of quiet intimacy to a beautifully accomplished film.

Play

PLAY                          B+                  

Sweden  France  Denmark  Finland  (118 mi)  2011  d:  Ruben Östlund

One of the more divisive films of the year, a Swedish examination of race within the comforts of the well-maintained Scandinavian middle class society, using a story pulled straight from the headlines, which some may view as manipulative or sensationalist, others as racist, while others find it deeply disturbing.  Because these robbery incidents actually happened, the question remains why they are significant, where the director examines some of the underlying motives behind such a successful scam operation, where between 2006 and 2008 there were about 40 reported similar incidents in Gothenburg, Sweden where a small group of about five 12 – 14 year old black kids would ask to see another young kid’s cell phone and then claim it resembles the phone stolen by their brother a week ago, where they then go through a charade of calling the brother and meeting him somewhere to sort it all out.  Using a psychologically complex series of head games intended to intimidate the kids into following them, they were actually successful in pulling off significant robberies without ever using a weapon or resorting to violence.  Nonetheless it’s a frightening example of pack mentality, extremely creepy, and amazing how easy it is for a small group to command this degree of involuntary cooperation, where it’s a return to the Lord of the Flies mentality in terms of establishing who’s in control of the situation, as the group with numbers tend to stand in the face of their intended victims, cursing at them with rude profanity and making insulting accusatory remarks, mocking them, calling them names, expressing out of control rage which in the minds of the victims could easily lead to something worse. 

There’s no question but that the blacks intentionally use to their advantage the white liberal guilt trip, at times pleading repeatedly, literally begging them to cooperate, while at other times they utilize the stereotypical views of blacks, that they are prone to violence, as the perception is that black neighborhoods are crime-infested, so the thinking is it’s to the advantage of the mostly white victims, who are typically well dressed, well mannered and polite, carrying cell phones, and usually showing signs of cash on them, to play along and chances are they won’t get hurt.  All of these thoughts are tested throughout this film, almost all of them unpleasant, where it’s extremely difficult to watch for a number of reasons, among which include the racial angle, but also a defense mechanism not to be manipulated by the director.  What’s fascinating is how easily the victims are manipulated, and when they’re targeted as a group, perhaps a couple kids, if one tries to leave, the other victim turns on them with a vengeance to stay behind, thinking it would only be worse for them if their friend runs away.  There are opportunities to run away or to alert an adult, but these kids are literally scared shitless to make a wrong move and are somewhat programmed by the rules of their own more docile middle class society to obey.  Like a cat toying with a mouse, these kids enjoy the shifting of power and playing with their victims, extending the experience to a lengthy afternoon, forcing them repeatedly into humiliating behavior until they develop helplessly defeatist attitudes about doing anything about it.  Most likely these kids are too ashamed of themselves to even mention it to adults, as evidenced by a subsequent train ride home, and scared by the ease in which the larger group takes complete control, where they futilely feel at their mercy.  It’s not about the money, as they could easily rob these kids at any time, where it’s easy to see that they enjoy watching their victims squirm.  By the end, as we see the victors scarf down soft drinks and pizza, in accordance with the title, it’s really all about enjoying themselves at someone else’s expense. 

  

While this is a fictionalized recreation of real events, initially set in a Stockholm shopping mall, implementing a straightforward, documentary style, static camera of long takes that simply observes human behavior mostly in real time without making any suggestive commentary, it should be stated that the performances of the black youths never appear staged and couldn’t be more naturalistic, constantly moving in and out of the frame as if they’re intimately familiar with the subject matter, offering sensational performances where it’s impossible to tell this isn’t real.  There are references to Michael Haneke films, like the punishingly sadistic kidnapping scheme in Funny Games (1997), only that film plays upon the audience’s expectations, where there is a brief window where the audience perceives the victims can escape, where because of their horridly brutal treatment the audience is actually crying out for revenge, at which point the director pulls the plug and says not so fast, literally playing with the audience through shocking treatment, which is not the case here, as the camera is a quietly detached observer that simply shows what happens and allows the audience to decide for themselves what it means or if it’s at all relevant.  There’s also a similar agonizing subway scene in Code Unknown (Code inconnu: Récit incomplet de divers voyages) (2000) where a passenger (Juliette Binoche) is tormented by an aggressive Arab youth who grows angrier when she ignores him, eventually spitting on her.  In that film, the director weaves together a mosaic of seemingly disconnected incidents which are mere fragments of life experiences, each expressing a stunning amount of authenticity, which seen as a whole lends a commentary on the complex multiculturalism of the modern age.  Östlund’s ambitions with this film might feel similar, but may be more personal, examining class perceptions through racial imagery, where he’s actually holding the mirror into the audience’s faces and asking if people recognize themselves.  How much does racial stereotyping affect our own behavior as well as society at large, and to what ends will people bully others to get what they want?  Most will not like what they see.