I just finished watching one of the more interesting and unusual movies I've ever seen: The Bothersome Man (Den brysomme mannen) on Netflix. It's a subtitled Norwegian film about a man who steps in front of a train only to find himself in a city he doesn't know with an assigned job and furnished apartment. Everyone else seems content and soulessly happy but he doesn't feel the way they do. He tries to leave only to find no way out... until he meets up with someone who has found a crack in the wall through which they can hear music.
While the majority of people are be content living in a bland world without highs and lows or smells or tastes, for some that would be a special kind of hell. This hell is exactly what our protagonist faces: a life without bright colours, sunshine, the taste of hot chocolate, the sound of children playing, or music. If any colours or blood or music should sully the landscape or sidewalk, a team of men dressed in grey jumpsuits is there to clean it all up and smooth it over so that it's as if there never was anything other than bland.
This is a dystopian film that shows one possible outcome for our society if diversity in all areas weren't encouraged. If we were all the same and loved the same things, our world would be that grey hell portrayed in the movie.
This movie is Norwegian with subtitles although there really isn't much dialogue and the pace is slower than I'm used to it being. Once I was able to settle into the pace and really watching the film to absorb all the imagery, the pace didn't bother me at all. There are three bloody (and maybe a bit gory) segments in the film but they're integral to the story and aren't at all gratuitous. This is one film that I highly recommend, especially if you're a fan of dystopian films like I am.
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