Manivald
2017 · 12m · Canada
Directed by Chintis Lundgren
Genres: comedy, coming-of-age, LGBTQ+
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, tender
Manivald, a 33-year-old unemployed fox living with his retired mother, has his dependent routine upended when wolf repairman Toomas arrives to fix their broken washing machine.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A 33-year-old fox living with his mother gets seduced by a wolf repairman—and the film somehow makes that premise feel like the most natural thing in the world, which is exactly the kind of deadpan absurdism that makes people mad you didn't warn them sooner.
Lundgren's formal restraint in playing the domestic setup against the queerness of desire shows real lineage awareness—this sits comfortably in a tradition of Nordic minimalism that lets behavioral comedy do the philosophical work.
The whole film hinges on a single performance choice: the moment Manivald realizes what's happening, and Lundgren holds it just long enough that tenderness breaks through the comedy without ever announcing itself.