Oscar nominee Ruben Ostlund talks about his upcoming seventh feature, The Entertainment System Is Down.
As advertised in the title, it follows a passenger on a long-haul flight who is suddenly forced to confront boredom when his entertainment system malfunctions.
“Sometimes[movies]start with a scene, like ‘Force Majeure’ and that avalanche sequence. This time it started with the title. I was traveling a lot with ‘The Square’ and we were flying over the Atlantic Ocean, and my wife and I were talking about what would be an interesting setting. What if all these screens stopped working? Then we started playing around with it.”
“I tell people about it, and when there are powerful settings, I share their stories. I stole them right away. I didn’t ask for permission, but I didn’t know how to make them stop working. One journalist told me about her flight. A man had a heart attack. They tried to save him, but 80 percent of the screen shut down because the defibrillator was connected to the plane’s system.”
“If someone dies, they keep flying even if they can’t save their life. It’s not an emergency. And they have to keep that person sitting!”
As previously reported, the film, which follows Palme d’Or winners The Square and Triangle of Sorrow, also stars Kirsten Dunst, Keanu Reeves, Daniel Brühl, Nicholas Braun and Samantha Morton.
“We’re constantly distracted, but when we have to switch off our phones (when we get on a plane), we feel a kind of joy. The lack of screens may reflect our behavior. We’re so attached to screens,” he said at the Nordic Film Market at the Gothenburg Film Festival. Østlund is honorary chairman of the Swedish event.
“I looked to see if there were any similar experiments. There was an experiment, and it was so perfect that I actually filmed it. This is one of the first scenes in the movie. It’s called ‘The Challenge of Emancipation.’ It was done in 2014. The scientists asked people to go into a room alone and do nothing for 7 to 15 minutes. People felt stressed and restless, and some compared it to torture. ! ”
“This is the basic human condition. We don’t like to do nothing. And they added one thing: They gave people the option of pushing a button and giving themselves an electric shock. It hurts, but it’s not harmful. Two-thirds of men pushed the button of their own free will. So did a quarter of women.”
“We’re hurting ourselves and we know it and we’re still pushing buttons,” he said. He also admitted to giving himself electric shocks. “One person pressed it 120 times.”
He wanted to make a movie in just one setting.
“I don’t want to be rude, but there are very few good movies that are set on airplanes. It’s hard to establish the dynamics in such a confined space. I said, ‘I want to shoot the whole airplane.'” We had been working with producer Eric Hemmendorf for a long time, and we knew we could raise the money, so we bought a Boeing 747. It’s not super expensive. ”
During his talk, Ostlund featured behind-the-scenes footage and explained how the set was constructed. Hector Appelgren, who hosted the event, allowed the audience to experience the event through a VR set, much to the delight of the audience.
The director also revealed the specific story development.
“Airplane movies never take advantage of the fact that you’re surrounded by a crowd of people. A man named Daniel Brühl has his whole family there, but he falls asleep when his entertainment system breaks down. His wife, played by Kristen Dunst, is bored and then looks at his phone. But he changes the PIN number! She uses her face to unlock it, but his mouth is too open, and we later find out he’s been having multiple affairs.”
“We thought: Let’s put them in the worst place, in the middle of the ocean, and they have to deal with this conflict.”
“I put a young pregnant woman and a Muslim family next to me and made them think about what it means to be a Western man and woman,” he added. He enjoys facing people’s shame, he said, because he also faces his own shame.
“This is the human condition. I condemn everyone and even myself.”
He also talked about some of the final scenes. (Warning: Contains spoilers)
“I didn’t know how to end it. I don’t mind spoiling it, so I’ll tell you now. We were working with VR glasses and we thought maybe one of the passengers was fully present in this world. We knew the plane was supposed to crash into the Pacific Ocean. These technical problems are compounded by the human factor, and that’s how the crash happens.”
“Keanu Reeves is supposed to play an electrician, and then he’s told he can’t control the plane anymore. He doesn’t want to be a hero, but he has to do his job. He tries to fix it, but it breaks down. And he fixes it – by accident. I thought it was a beautiful film.”
He added, “My wife said, ‘What would you do if you put a VR person next to you?'” He misses everything. They have to wake him up, but (instead of running away) he decides to put them back together. And we follow him into that world. ”
He summarized it as follows: “There’s a conflict between humans and technology, and that’s very relevant to my film and the times we live in today.”
“I’m very interested to see what happens when we do the first test screening of this film,” he said. “All the distributors are very nervous.”
