The Ape

Ordinary-looking, middle-aged Krister (Olle Sarri) wakes on the bathroom floor, spattered with blood. He washes, dresses and goes to work. He’s irritable, out of sorts, yelling at his clients. The world around him is vague but intrusive – the lights too bright, the noise too loud. He goes to the gym, then drives home. The living room looks like a slaughterhouse.

Jesper Ganslandt’s third feature is a work of psychological observation in the most literal sense: all we can do is watch. There’s no commentary, no judgment and precious little insight, so what we’re left with is a simple, near-real-time portrait of a taciturn, unreadable man trying to deal with the extremity of his existence. Sarri is phenomenal as Krister, an icy, utterly unpredictable blank canvas. Ganslandt directs with tremendous precision, creating a mood of brooding, implacable threat. But his refusal to dig any deeper into his character results in a compelling but finally (and perhaps intentionally) rather shallow portrait of human behaviour.