INVOLUNTARY Director: RUBEN ÖSTLUND 98 minutes| Sweden| 2008| Subtitled| Colour| D-Cinema Book cinema tickets Interlinked micro-dramas in this super-smart new Swedish offering throw the spotlight on why we do the things we do: moral conviction, peer pressure, or plain stupidity? First-timer Ruben Östlund perceptively zeroes in on situations where the fault-lines of our behaviour are exposed, whether it’s a teacher responding to her colleague’s transgression, a bus passenger with a dark secret, teenage girls pushing drunken horseplay beyond the limits of good sense, or a middle-aged party host unwisely soldiering on after a fireworks incident. Observed in beady-eyed extended takes, all this is staged and performed with such skill it’s utterly believable, yet unlike, say, Lars Von Trier or Ulrich Seidl’s approach to urgent ethical dilemmas never resorts to strong-arm shock tactics to push the viewer’s buttons. This is reflective stuff, cumulatively engaging as the various stories gather chastening momentum, but never wishy-washy in its exposure of what Östlund obviously sees as Sweden’s tendency to smug consensus and self-interest. Well worth seeing. (Notes by Trevor Johnston). Director: RUBEN ÖSTLUND 98 minutes| Sweden| 2008| Subtitled| Colour| D-Cinema