Songs from the Second Floor (2000)

Essential Viewing

Sweden/Denmark/Norway/France/Germany

Feature Film

Original Title: Sånger från andra våningen

Writer/Director: Roy Andersson

Cinematographers: István Borbás, Jesper Klevenas, Robert Komarek

Composer: Benny Andersson

Cast: Lars Nordh, Stefan Larsson, Bengt C.W. Carlsson, Torbjörn Fahlström, Sten Andersson, Rolando Núñez, Lucio Vucina, Per Jörnelius, Peter Roth, Klas-Gösta Olsson, Nils-Åke Eriksson, Hanna Eriksson, Tommy Johansson, Sture Olsson, Fredrik Sjögren

Songs from the Second Floor, Andersson’s soul-stompingly cynical attack against capitalism and other modern ills, brilliantly presents us with a blackly comic vision of a drab, grey, decaying northern European city, whose deathly pale inhabitants wander the streets in search of something to sell (with a couple of added zeros), marching inexorably and inexplicably towards their own doom. Iain.Stott