The Guitar Mongoloid is a 2004

2004 in film

The year 2004 in film involved some significant events. Major releases of sequels took place. It included blockbuster films like Shrek 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Passion of the Christ, Meet the Fockers, Blade: Trinity, Spider-Man 2, Alien vs. Predator, Kill Bill Vol...

 Swedish

Cinema of Sweden

Swedish cinema is known as producing many critically acclaimed movies, and during the 20th century was the most prominent of Scandinavia. This is largely due to the popularity and prominence of the directors Ingmar Bergman, Victor Sjöström, and more recently Lasse Hallström and Lukas...

 film directed by Ruben Östlund

Ruben Östlund

Ruben Östlund is a Swedish film director. Originally a director of skiing film, he has directed three feature-length fiction films: The Guitar Mongoloid from 2004, Involuntary from 2008 and Play, scheduled to be released in 2011.-Career:Ruben Östlund started as a director of skiing films in the...

, about different people living outside the norms in the fictional city Jöteborg, strikingly similar to real-life Göteborg

Gothenburg

Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...

. Although not a documentary, most of the people seen in the film are non-actors more or less playing themselves.

Selected cast

• Erik Rutström as Erik
• Ola Sandstig as Ola
• Britt-Marie Andersson as neurotic woman
• Julia Persdotter as Ola's girlfriend
• P-A Emanuelsson
• Anna Johansson
• Mikael Allu
• Bjarne Gunnarsson
• Pär Berg
• David Olandersson

Reception

The film was met by mixed but overall positive reviews, with a rating of 3.6 out of 5 based on eight reviews at the Swedish-language review aggregator

Review aggregator

A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services . This system stores the reviews and then uses them for purposes such as: creating a website for users to view the reviews, selling information to third parties about consumer tendencies and creating databases for...

 website Kritiker.se. Carl-Johan Malmberg at Svenska Dagbladet

Svenska Dagbladet

Svenska Dagbladet is a daily newspaper in Sweden. The first issue appeared on 18 December 1884. Svenska Dagbladet is published in Stockholm and provides coverage of national and international news as well as local coverage of the Greater Stockholm region...

gave it 5 out of 6 and called it "a series of sabotages: against our expectations, against good taste, as well as against the boredom of the normal Swedish film with its moderately thoughtful, moderately funny, moderately empathetic, and quickly forgotten stories." Jens Peterson at Aftonbladet

Aftonbladet

Aftonbladet is a Swedish tabloid founded by Lars Johan Hierta in 1830 during the modernization of Sweden. It is one of the larger daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. Aftonbladet is owned by the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and Norwegian media group Schibsted, and its editorial page...

was less enthusiastic and rated the film 2 out of 5, summarising it as "Jackass

Jackass (TV series)

jackass is an American reality series, originally shown on MTV from 2000 to 2002, featuring people performing various dangerous, crude, ridiculous, self-injuring stunts and pranks...

 without heart, Candid Camera

Candid Camera

Candid Camera is a hidden camera/practical joke reality television series created and produced by Allen Funt, which initially began on radio as Candid Microphone June 28, 1947...

 without humour." The film was honored with the FIPRESCI

FIPRESCI

The International Federation of Film Critics is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world for "the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests." It was founded in June 1930 in...

 Award at the 2005 Moscow International Film Festival

Moscow International Film Festival

Moscow International Film Festival , is the film festival first held in Moscow in 1959. From its inception to 1995 it was held every second year in July, alternating with the Karlovy Vary festival. The festival has been held annually since 1995....

.