Netflix is keeping its promise to release movies every week. This film was announced its production in 2019, during the Stockholm Film Festival and a few days ago it was released on the streaming platform.

Who is the director?

It is the second film directed by Alain Darborg, Swedish filmmaker who debuted in 2015 with a great success in his country: Jönssonligan - Den perfekta stöten , a thriller in which a man named Charles decides to avenge the death of his master, planning a perfect plan, with the help of an explosives expert, a swindler and an expert in opening safes. The film was a great success in Sweden, although in the rest of the world many of us have not been able to see it.

Now, the filmmaker immerses us in a drama and survival thriller, where revenge is also involved. Alain has co-written the script with screenwriter Per Dickson. It should be added that the director has extensive experience in Swedish television, where he has directed several TV series, such as Inkognito (TV miniseries) and the series
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What is the plot?

Einar has graduated as an engineer and decides to propose to his girlfriend Nadja. It is the happiest day of his new life. Immediately the story moves forward a year and a half in time, where the passion seems to be over, the routine of marriage overwhelms them and to finish pushing the situation to the limit, Nadja is pregnant. She hasn't told Einar, only her kind neighbor Rolle, a gentleman who seems to be a friend of the couple, knows. To try to save their marriage, Einar invites Nadja to camp in a northern part of the country, where they plan to spend a few happy days. On the way they have an unpleasant encounter with a couple of local men who are into hunting, plus Nadja doesn't seem to like the people, apparently they are racist and she is dark-skinned. The wonderful trip suddenly turns into a nightmare, a red dot hunter's rifle is pointed at them, now they must run for their lives from a stranger who is willing to make them suffer before he kills them.

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A cheating script

I found the movie entertaining and enjoyed it from beginning to end, but I must say that there is a cheat in the script. After the first sequence, where Einar asks Nadja to marry him, there is a time jump of a year and a half in time. And there is something that happened that triggers the whole conflict of the story.

Why don't they show it? The filmmaker's intention is to surprise the viewer, with a twist in the story, that reveals everything that has happened. But what happened is so serious, that it bothers me that we are introduced to the couple a year and a half later, and no reference is made to that fact.

We don't see the couple tormented or remorseful, he spends his time playing video games and she spends her time complaining that she doesn't want to be a housewife, that she is studying medicine. There's not a single scene where they're upset about what happened to them. Also, that it was something that had to be in the news or that they could find out on the internet and find out a lot of things.

There's a setup, so that we're surprised, but it's not well done, because they had to know who the villain was.

The villain

I'm no fortune teller, but after watching so many movies, I knew right away who the bad guy was. As soon as he made his appearance, I said to myself. This man is hiding something. The story is hiding something from me. I knew there was an important scene missing from that time jump in the story.

I admit that it caused me discomfort, because when the moment of the supposed surprise revelation comes, for me it wasn't surprising, because it was obvious, I had already guessed who the villain was and when they show the scene of the motives he has, it didn't shock me, for me it was predictable.

It didn't surprise me at all?

Just one thing, the denouement of the story did surprise me. I didn't expect it. I like stories that close unceremoniously, hard, cruel and heartbreaking endings. And this movie has a good ending. Dry and direct, like a gunshot.

It is a survival thriller. The protagonist couple must face that hostile environment to which they have traveled to try to recover the magic of their marriage.

I liked that scenes are shown where there is racism against Nadja, because many films paint the Nordic countries as very peaceful places with immigrants, but in reality there are racists within that society. No place is perfect, hatred towards other people because of their skin color, race or religion exists everywhere.

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The film is entertaining, when the red dot, referred to in the title of the film, appears, the nightmare begins for the couple. They have to see how they escape from the madman who wants to kill them, and at the same time they have to survive the extreme weather conditions of the area. Like a Spanish film I reviewed a few weeks ago, the struggle for survival is twofold.

The female character, Nadja, is the stronger one, compared to Einar, she is tougher and more willing to fight to survive. On the contrary, Einar, who is the male character, is a weak character and keeps asking Nadja for help with everything.

Although she is the stronger character and I like strong women in movies, I found Nadja hard to digest. She is a character I don't like, I didn't manage to feel sympathy for her. Also, when we discover the surprise twist, she was actually the cause of it all.

The cinematography is fundamental to the story, set in a beautiful, cold setting where you can see the Northern Lights. The director sought out someone he had already worked with on his first film, cinematographer Benjam Orre, who does an excellent job. Especially in the scenes that occur in the dark, no detail is lost and everything is seen clearly.

For the film's soundtrack, composer Carl-Johan Sevedag was commissioned to arrange the music to heighten the tension of the scenes. The composer's filmography includes the films Borg Vs McEnroe and Horizon Line.

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The actors

Johannes Bah Kuhnke plays Einar, the young man in love with Nadja, who wants to marry the woman he loves. But the little mistakes of fate will come to pay him an outstanding debt. Joahannes is a Swedish actor and singer, whose breakthrough role was in Ruben Östlund's Force Majeure. But I remember seeing the actor in an excellent series about androids and their relationship with society, the series was called Äkta människor, it had two seasons and I liked it a lot. They made an American remake called Real Humans, but it was very bad. The actor also participated in 2010, as a singer in Melodifestivalen where he performed the song "Tonight" and if you have seen the Danish series The Rain, you may find the actor's face familiar.
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Nanna Blondell plays Nadja, the woman who is tired of the routine of marriage, feels bad being a housewife, is a woman of strong character and determined to achieve her goals. But she will have to face the man who wants revenge. The actress studied at the drama academy in Stockholm and has made her career in Sweden, working in the TV series Hassel and Twin. In 2019 she participates in the French film Sister in Arms and among her future projects that we will see, is the expected Marvel film Black Widow, starring Scarlett Johansson, this film has been delayed multiple times its release, because of covida. You have to pay attention to this actress, that participation in a Marvel movie can open doors to more productions in Hollywood.

I will not say who is the actor who plays the villain , because it would be a big spoiler for those who do not guess when he appears. I will only say that the rest of the cast consists of Anastasio Soulis playing David. Kalled Mustonen playing Jarmo. Thooman Hanzon playing Rolle and Anna Azcarate playing Mona.

Trailer

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POSTER

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