Badaren (Swimmer)
2020 · 13m · Sweden
Directed by Jonatan Etzler
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, melancholic
When two police officers arrive at a public swimming pool to arrest a man named Ola over his car, he refuses to leave the water, turning a routine arrest into an absurd standoff that reveals surprising emotional depth.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Naked man refuses to leave a pool to get arrested — yes, this is the kind of absurdist Nordic standoff I'll watch. The real news-story origin keeps it from drifting into pure schtick.
Roy Andersson's deadpan tableaux come to mind, though the contained absurdity of a man refusing to leave water is closer to Östlund's Force Majeure in miniature — pure social discomfort as cinematic engine. A premise this elegant rarely needs more than twelve minutes to fully bloom.
Twelve minutes forty-one of a single absurd standoff staged at pool-level — that committed location choice is doing the heavy lifting, forcing the cops and the cinematography to wade around their suspect. Etzler has the deadpan Nordic timing to make a real news clipping land as Roy Andersson-adjacent comedy.
Reviews
Strikes the perfect balance between humor and drama. What starts as an absurd and unexpected face-off ultimately unfolds into a confrontation layered with compelling emotional depth.
Pontus Liedberg is excellent as a man evading arrest at a public pool.
Festivals
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2021, Best Comedy
- Palm Springs International ShortFest 2020
- AFI Fest 2020
- Uppsala International Short Film Festival 2020
- Nordische Filmtage Lübeck 2020