Ruben Ӧstlund, a friend of Motovun Film Festival, won his second Palm d’Or in Cannes, thus joining the club of a very few double Cannes winners. This time he triumphed with his Triangle Of Sadness, a social satire about the beauty industry and the superrich. While raising controversies and mixed opinions of film critics, it captivated the Cannes jury presided by French actor Vincent Lindon. 

The plot – a stinging criticism of excessive capitalism – takes place aboard a cruiser that ends up stranded on a deserted island where role-switching takes place: the inventive crew members start having the upper hand over the passengers. The film stars Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean and Woody Harrelson, with Croatian actor Zlatko Burić in an interesting supporting role of an Eastern European tycoon. 

The project was first announced way back in 2017, after Ӧstlund’s first Cannes triumph (The Square). The preparations for the production were completed in late 2019 and the shooting began in February 2020. However, it was soon forced to pause due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Finally, the production was wrapped up in 2022 and the film premiered in Cannes. 

Östlund’s films are very accurate studies of the modern Western life paralyzed with fear from different people and cultures. He is obsessively focused on all sorts of conformism. By examining social classes, immigration and democracy, Östlund analyzes the dark side of the seemingly ideal societies. His films are regularly shown at Motovun Film festival. Play and Force Majeure received the festival’s FIPRESCI Jury award and the director is the Motovun Maverick laureate for 2018 (when he visited the festival).  

Congratulating Ruben on this success, we look forward to his new film and to meeting him again some time soon.