Movies in the Mountains: Force Majeure challenges family roles

What would you do if you and your family were in the path of an avalanche? You’d probably like to think you got them to cover, or at least dived over them in a vain hope to protect. Or would you run?

On Wednesday Nov. 25, the Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre will show the Swedish film Force Majeure, where handsome businessman Tomas (Johannes Kuhnke), his willowy wife Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli), and their two blond children face this very scenario. While on holiday at an idyllic ski resort in the Parisian Alps, the family sit down at a mountainside restaurant for lunch, when a seemingly uncontrolled avalanche bears down on the restaurant guests. In the midst of panic and turmoil, Tomas’s instinct is to flee.

The family in happier times at the start of their ski holiday. Photo: Publicity shot.

Force Majeure means “superior force,” also known as casus fortuitus “chance occurrence, unavoidable accident,” and it is a common clause in contracts that essentially frees parties from liability or obligation, when an extraordinary event or beyond their control prevents a party from fulfilling their obligations.

Except when one party’s role is father, expected protector, and the extraordinary event highlights rather than excuses alternate behavior.

Director Ruben Östlund’s film explores the consequences of Tomas’s actions on himself, his children, and his marriage — already on a thin tether. The Guardian’s Henry Barnes puts it well in his review, “Östlund invites us to look at ourselves honestly. He points out our inconsistencies, attempts to hold us to account for our worst hypocrisies. Force Majeure is a frightening film. It brushes off our surface layer, shows us the icy truth underneath.”

The movie moves along with the drama intensifying with every day of skiing. Visually, the daily operations of the ski resort provide a contrast to the turmoil the family faces and the film has a number of artistic quirks, such as sudden changes of scene in the midst of a tense moment. There are many moments of subtle humour as friends are inadvertently involved in the awkward conflict and when Tomas denies he ran away, there’s video evidence on a phone to proclaim him guilty.

Check out the trailer below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3nTJIc_e6Ns

Box Office: Tickets: $8. Buy tickets online and access online discounts here. Enter promo code revmountaineer for a special online-only 5% discount.

Event details: Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday Nov. 25.

Check out other upcoming films and events in the Revelstoke Mountaineer’s guide to the Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre’s loaded winter calendar.