Actually men are closer to having the ability to act egoistic when it comes to a crisis situation.
Ruben OstlundI want my film to be possible to use as a reference when we are trying to live our lives.
Ruben OstlundSo many times after a catastrophe like 9/11, Estonia in Sweden, the Holocaust or whatever, we are so fond of lifting up the hero examples, but actually 99 percent of survivors have done something that they feel very guilty about.
Ruben OstlundI don't like that we repeat a certain expression over and over again because I think it narrows the way that we look on the world. I also think that there is a certain responsibility if you work with moving images because it's so strong in creating behaviour; it's so strong in creating the way that we look on the world, so for me it's very important that I create images that I have an experience of or is something that I think exists in the world and not just in cinema.
Ruben OstlundI was very interested in highlighting group behaviour and I wanted to show that I think this is very fundamental about being a human being... that we are herd animals actually. So, I was looking for different situations that take place in different kinds of groups.
Ruben OstlundJust look at the history of cinema. The most reproduced male character is probably the hero and the most reproduced female character is probably the sex object. I think those stereotypes have been reproduced over and over again. It also changes our expectations when it comes to a situation like this in real life.
Ruben OstlundI'm not a genre film filmmaker. I'd rather look for a topic that I think we need to bring up and discuss because there's something about the issues in the film.
Ruben Ostlund