About Endlessness is a reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendor and banality. We wander, dreamlike, gently guided by our Scheherazade-esque narrator. Inconsequential moments take on the same significance as historical events: a couple floats over a war-torn Cologne; on the way to a birthday party, a father stops to tie his daughter’s shoelaces in the pouring rain; teenage girls dance outside a cafe; a defeated army marches to a prisoner-of-war camp. Simultaneously an ode and a lament, About Endlessness presents a kaleidoscope of all that is eternally human, an infinite story of the vulnerability of existence.
About Endlessness (Swedish: Om det oändliga) is a 2019 Swedish drama film directed by Roy Andersson and starring Lesley Leichtweis Bernardi, Ania Nova, Tatiana Delaunay, Jan-Eje Ferling, Thore Flygel, Karin Engman, Magnus Wallgren, Anton Forsdik, Fanny Forsdik, Gloria Ormandlaky, Amanda Davies, Marie Burman and Anders Hellström. It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 76th Venice International Film Festival. At the Venice Film Festival, the film won the Silver Lion for Best Direction.
About the Story
About Endlessness consists of a series of vignettes that are often narrated to provide further context. The vignettes are shown in the following order.
1. A man and woman sit on a park bench overlooking a nearby city, the woman commenting that it’s September.
2. A man breaks the fourth wall to tell the audience of an encounter he had with a former classmate, Sverker Olsson, whom he wronged in the past. He tries to greet Sverker but is ignored.
3. A waiter at a fancy restaurant absentmindedly overflows his customer’s glass, spilling onto the table.
4. A woman, described by the narrator as “incapable of feeling shame,” turns and looks back at the camera with an annoyed expression.
5. A man checks inside of his mattress for his life savings that he keeps there, as he does not trust banks.
6. A priest (who is featured prominently throughout the film) has a vivid nightmare of being crucified, and his wife helps to calm him down to go back to sleep.
7. As a barbershop employee waters a tree outside, a young lovelorn man watches her from a distance until she returns inside.
8. The priest visits Dr. Lindh, who dismisses his dreams as simple nightmares. The priest expresses his ever-growing doubt about God, and the doctor suggests that God does not exist. He tells the priest to meet him next week.
9. A man at a subway station watches a legless, mandolin-playing busker.
10. A man plays with his infant child outside a building as his wife watches and the child’s grandmother takes pictures.
11. The priest, still troubled over his recurring nightmares, gets drunk on communion wine and asks God why he has been forsaken. He stumbles back to his congregation.
12. Two parents leave flowers on the grave of their son, who died in a war.
13. Two lovers float over the ruins of a once-prosperous, beautiful city.
14. A young woman gets off at a train station and finds nobody waiting for her. Her husband then hurriedly arrives and helps take her luggage as they leave.
15. A man takes a younger woman (and connoisseur of champagne) on a date.
16. A woman sits alone at a diner as a man carrying flowers enters and asks if her name is Lisa Larsson. She tells him it isn’t as her husband returns with two beers. The man slowly and awkwardly leaves.
17. A captured soldier is tied to a post by the enemy army, despite his desperate pleas. He is then left alone.
18. Three young women pass by a cafe playing Tre Trallande Jäntor by The Delta Rhythm Boys. The three dance to the song in front of the cafe’s customers, entertaining them.
19. A woman at a train station with her baby breaks the heels of her shoes, forcing her to place them underneath her baby’s stroller and continue on.
20. A man cradles his murdered daughter’s corpse. The narrator says he wanted to protect his family’s honor, but changed his mind.
21. A jealous husband confronts his wife at an open market, accusing her of having an affair. As he begins slapping her, several bystanders attempt to restrain him and get him to calm down. The man claims that he loves her, and she says she knows.
22. A young man discusses the first law of thermodynamics about how all matter and energy can never be destroyed, only changed, and that because of it, everyone’s “energies” are never-ending.
23. The next vignette depicts Adolf Hitler returning to his bunker upon his military’s imminent defeat at the hands of the Allied forces above him.
24. The priest openly weeps on a crowded bus, lamenting that he “doesn’t know what he wants.” One passenger mocks his public display of emotion.
25. A man and his young daughter stop on their way to a birthday party so he can tie her shoes while in the pouring rain.
26. The priest confronts Dr. Lindh at his clinic at closing time. He repeatedly begs the doctor and his assistant to help him find purpose after losing his faith, but they turn him down and eject him from their office, where he waits and continues to cry for their help.
27. A dentist sees a patient about a toothache. When the patient rejects anesthesia due to his hatred of needles, the dentist attempts to work on the tooth regardless. The patient’s repeated yells of pain prompt the doctor to leave, fed up. The dentist’s assistant claims that the dentist has anger issues.
28. The dentist has a drink at a nearby bar where a patron is declaring that “everything is fantastic.”
29. An army defeated and then captured by Serbians is being marched to a prison camp.
30. The man from the second vignette recounts a second identical encounter that he had with Sverker. He also learns that, despite lackluster grades, Sverker managed to get his PhD degree, making the man reflect on how little he has accomplished. His wife reminds him of their many travels together, but he continues to dwell on Sverker’s successes.
31. A man’s car breaks down on a country road, and he attempts to fix it himself with little success.
About Endlessness (2021)
Directed by: Om det oändliga
Starring: Lesley Leichtweis Bernardi, Ania Nova, Tatiana Delaunay, Jan-Eje Ferling, Thore Flygel, Karin Engman, Magnus Wallgren, Anton Forsdik, Fanny Forsdik, Gloria Ormandlaky, Amanda Davies, Marie Burman, Anders Hellström
Screenplay by: Roy Andersson
Production Design by: Ludvig Gür, Niko Remus, Vigdis Roset
Cinematography by: Gergely Pálos
Set Decoration by: Frida Ekström Elmstrand
Art Direction by: Morten Willyson Bjørnådal
Makeup Department: Emelie Henriksson, Therese Ros
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Magnolia Pictures
Release Date: September 18, 2020
