Another 2011 Cannes Film Festival title previously profiled on S&A.

A Swedish feature titled, simply, Play, which will screen in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Directors’ Fortnight) section of the festival. Another title on MsWOO’s to-see list, while she’s at Cannes.

Directed by Ruben Östlund, his 3rd feature, Play, which is apparently based on real-life events, takes place between 2006 and 2008, in central Gothenburg, Sweden, and 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.

The artistic director of the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Directors’ Fortnight) calls Play, “a masterpiece,” for whatever that’s worth. Further… it’s described as a “serious yet humorous study of human behavior.“

I’m not familiar with the real-life Swedish cases the film is based on, and a Google search didn’t immediately reveal anything, but I’ll keep digging. I guess the fascination here for a white Swedish filmmaker would be that the fact that these young black boys used more brains than brawn to carryout their thievery, which, I suppose, speaks to a stereotype about blacks in general. I should note that these black kids are probably mostly African immigrants.

Still, I’m curious…

And until we get MsWOO’s thoughts on it, we’ll have to settle for the below 2 clips I found earlier this morning: