Event

Songs from the Second Floor

2000, Dir. Roy Andersson
With Lars Nordh, Stefan Larsson and Bengt C. W. Carlsson
98 min, 35 mm

Inspired by the work of Peruvian poet César Vallejo, the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize winner Songs from the Second Floor launched Roy Andersson back into the international film spotlight after a twenty-year exile. In a world struck by an economic downturn, foreshadowing the real-world economic crisis by eight years, a down-on-his-luck bookstore owner hatches a plan to burn down his shop for insurance money. However, nothing goes as planned for the merchant and he finds himself wandering through darkly comedic tableaux of life in a modern city. Encountering ghosts, a religious icon salesmen convention, desperate economists consulting crystals balls and other surreal scenes the bookstore owner seeks answers to why life must contain suffering.