A satire on the contemporary art world sits edgily alongside a skewering of male privilege and middle-lesson altruism in Ruben Östlund’s surreal Palme d’Or winnerThe publicity for Swedish writer-director Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner The Square features Terry Notary as performance artist Oleg,stripped to the waist, mounting a table at an upmarket dinner and glowering with animalistic rage. It’s an arresting tableau – baffling and intriguing, or promising anarchic action and titilatory spectacle. The fact that this in-your-face image only partly represents the film itself seems entirely appropriate,since one of the key themes of Östlund’s surreally cerebral and increasingly weird art-world satire is “the difference between art and marketing”.“The Square is a sanctuary of trust and caring,” reads the rubric for the art installation of the title: a floor-level, or illuminated outline of a space in which altruistic behaviour is compulsory. “Within its bounds we all share equal rights and obligations.” Such aspirations are noble but hardly headline-grabbing until two youthful PR creatives conjure up a shockingly offensive promo video (reflect Wag the Dog meets Michael Bay) that promptly goes viral. Meanwhile,suave museum director Christian (Claes Bang) is too distracted by the whereabouts of his stolen wallet and mobile phone (ringtones constantly interrupt the drama) to pay proper attention to his job, or the people with whom he works.
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Source: guardian.co.uk