A far cry from the beloved Saturday cartoons of mornings past, Daydream Nation’s roster of 17 animated films and videos offers a vision of Sweden all grown-up, bringing unorthodox and often unsettling imagery to life. Couples on the brink, lonely mopers, professional disillusionment, and more than a few decapitation and dismemberment scenes find themselves juxtaposed against the nicer things in life: colorful origami, toy cars, dancing ladies with parasols, horses, and pretty blonde party girls. So is Sweden, then, a nation of dreamers? Well, this program, featuring vibrant work from the cosmopolitan streets of Stockholm, the up-and-coming communities of arty Göteborg, the maritime landscape of southernmost Malmö, and various expatriate outposts, dares to suggest so.

Daydream Nation’s diverse program includes work by festival favorites Klara Swantesson and Peter Larsson, whose films represented two-thirds of the 2006 nominations for “Best Short Film” at Sweden’s national version of the Oscars, the Guldbagge awards. Likewise, Sweden’s world-class contemporary music scene is ably represented, running the gamut from the macabre electronica of The Knife to the saccharine pop of The Concretes,Peter, Björn, and John, the Envelopes, and El Perro Del Mar. Also on offer are films by well-known music video directors Andreas Nilsson, Andreas Korsár, Björn Renner, and Henrik Åkerberg.

• buy tickets now
• showing: Thursday, August 23 at 9:15 p.m.
• venue: the Ritz Theater
• website

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 28th, 2007 at 11:43 pm and is filed under Aug 23, Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.