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Alien Nation  

Fabian’s Film presents a season of eight films exploring five subcultural themes: age, class, race, gender and disability. Though each film illustrates themes considered specific to a certain group, their narratives pinpoint the connections to issues which, as a society we can all identify.

Play (15)

Dir. Ruben Östlund, Sweden, 118 mins, 2013.

In a shopping mall in downtown Gothenburg, five young boys accost another group of three young boys to ask them for the time. When one of them pulls out his cell phone to look at the time, he is accused of having stolen the phone from the first boy’s ‘little brother’, which he categorically denies.

The five boys then suggest that these other boys accompany them a short distance away to show the phone to its supposed rightful owner, said little brother, to clear things up.

Play is an astute cinematic observation based on real cases of bullying, where thieves used an elaborate scheme called the ‘little brother number’ or ‘brother trick’, which involves advanced role-play and gang rhetoric rather than physical violence.

Director Ruben Östlund’s simple shooting style, painfully highlights the rituals and consequences of the power relationships between Gothenburg’s cultural and age-related groups.

‘Modern, audacious, provocative’
LIBERATION

‘Challenging and thoughtful’
SCREEN INTERNATIONAL

‘Thrilling, touching and funny’
GOTESBORGS-POSTEN

Showing Times

• Tue 29 Nov: 7.30pm

Venue: Studio 74, Exeter Phoenix