Force Majeure director ‘master of finesse’

The first film in the Kamloops Film Society’s Winter 2015 series will be Ruben Östlund’s FORCE MAJEURE to be screened Thursday, Jan. 15 at 7 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre.

Directed and written by Ruben Östlund, Force Majeure is a Swedish comedy starring Johannes Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, and Clara Wettergren.

A Swedish family travels to the French Alps to enjoy a few days of skiing and spend some precious time with each other. The sun is shining and the slopes are spectacular but, during a lunch at a mountainside restaurant, an avalanche turns everything upside down.

With diners fleeing in all directions, mother Ebba calls for her husband Tomas as she tries to protect their children. Tomas, meanwhile, is running for his life. Reality returns to embarrassed laughter, the anticipated disaster having failed to occur, and yet the family’s world has been shaken to its core, a question mark hanging over their father in particular. Tomas and Ebba’s marriage now hangs in the balance as Tomas struggles desperately to reclaim his role as family patriarch.

In a four-star review, the Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips said, “In his fourth feature, writer-director Ruben Ostlund proves himself a master of finesse…’Force Majeure’ is both funny and sad, often in the same glance-averted instant. See it with someone you’d trust to stick around in an avalanche. It’s one of the highlights of 2014.”

Ruben Östlund is a Swedish writer and director of Involuntary (2008), Play (2011) and Force Majeure (2014).

Tickets are available in advance at MovieMart (444 St. Paul) or at the door, Paramount Theatre, on the Thursday evening screening. A $2 annual membership in the Kamloops Film Society is required.

On-line tickets for each of the KFS series films are now available. Visit http://www.kamloopsfilmsociety.ca/tickets.