The European Parliament has officially announced the three European feature films that will compete for this year’s LUX Prize; and one of those 3 films is the Swedish feature titled, simply, Play, which screened in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Directors’ Fortnight) section of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival – a film we’ve covered on this site.

The LUX Prize was established in 2007 as a symbol of the European Parliament’s commitment to the European film industry and its endeavors, casting an annual spotlight on films that “explore and question European shared values… and address cross-border concerns such as immigration, justice, solidarity, public freedoms and fundamentals rights.“

Directed by Ruben Östlund, his 3rd feature, Play, which is based on real-life events, centers on a group of black boys, aged 12 to 14, who robbed other children, sans physical violence or threats, using an ingenious, elaborate system they called “The Brother Trick,” which involved advanced role playing and gang rhetoric.

MsWOO, who attended the Cannes Film Festival for S&A, saw the film and reviewed it HERE.

The film is without stateside distribution at the moment, so I’m not sure if we’ll ever get to see it in theaters on this side of the pond. I don’t believe it’s even been released anywhere in Europe yet, except for festival play.

Here’s the trailer for Play again: