About endlessness

In 'About Endlessness', Roy Andersson is enshrined as the great director credited with adapting the structure of the classic story of 'One Thousand and One Nights'. The film itself functions as a reflection on human life and its different stages; from the most inconsequential moments to historical moments of unqualified vital relevance, all these experiences overlap as parts of a whole. An ode to existence, its beauty and its cruelty, its splendor and its banality. Guided by the Scheherazade-esque narrator, the viewer floats through the different, juxtaposing scenes: a couple floating over the devastated city of Cologne during the war, a father tying his daughter's shoelaces in the pouring rain as they head to a birthday party, teenagers dancing outside a cafe, a defeated army marching to a prisoner of war camp. In short, a complex kaleidoscope that delicately presents everything human, its vulnerable existence. Across its almost 80 minute duration, the director exposes everything inherently human about us with delicate care and beauty.

With the film, Andersson not only captivated the audience of the Venice Film Festival in 2019, but also managed to win the Silver Lion for the best direction, an award that brings establishes him as one of the best Scandinavian directors of the moment.