RED DOT

Sweden, 2021, 86 minutes, Colour.

Nanna Blondell, Anastasios Soulis, Thomas Hanzon, Thomas Bergstrom, Anna Azcarate, Johannes Kuhnke, Kalled Mustonen.

Directed by  Alain Darborg.

A Swedish thriller which starts out looking like a domestic drama, an exploration of relationships, proposal, marriage, 18 months later, tension, the husband at work, the wife studying to be a doctor not having time for study, discovering she is pregnant.

However, the bulk of the film shows the young couple accepting a gift of an excursion to see the northern lights, their encounter with two locals and some mutual scratching of vehicles which leads to a number of violent consequences, their time out in the snow, seeing the lights, but then finding themselves pursued. In their tent, they see the red dot from a rifle, on the side of the tent, on themselves.

For a while, the action is somewhat breathless, the couple escaping in the snow, the husband’s arm caught in a trap, iced lakes and cracking, the beheading of their dog, the tent stripped…

As they take refuge, there are some rather enormous twists in the plot, with a flashback not shown earlier with the couple responsible for the death of a boy on the road, revelation about who the boy was, the vengeance on confrontation.

The thriller aspects are involving. The personal aspects, the hit run, the consequences, vengeance, deaths are disturbing.

1. Swedish thriller? Revelations and twists?
2. The Swedish setting, the University and graduation, the apartment and home life, the trip to the northern lights, the inn, accommodation, the tent, the northern lights, the snowfields, the iced lake, night and fog? The musical score?
3. The introduction to Nadja and David? Graduation? Proposal? Hopes? 18 months later, tension, David and his work, Nadja and her studies, to be a doctor? Discovering she is pregnant? Not telling David? The discussions with the neighbour, Thomas, his encouragement and support?
4. The arguments between Nadja and David? The gift of the excursion to the northern lights? Squabbling the car? Stopping at the diner, the two brothers, their truck and the dead deer, hitting their vehicle, the later scratching of theirs, Nadja with the key on the brother’s truck? Not reporting? Petulance?
5. The inn, the wife and the interracial prejudice? The hut, the experience, the lights? Going further, the tent?
6. The red dot, targeting, on the tent, on each of them? Sounds, pursuit? Fleeing, gunshots? Fears, David wounded, arm in the trap? The pursuit, losing each other, Nadja on the lake, the icebreaking, David in the ice, the rescue? Uncertainties, through the fog, finding the tent, the beheaded head of their dog, Boris? Everything gone?
7. The increasing fears, one of the brothers as a ranger, Nadja shooting the flare?
8. Going back to the inn, David and his condition?
9. Thomas present, the revelation of the truth, the twists in the plot, the flashback not revealed before, Nadja and the sexual advance in the car, the crash, killing the boy, Thomas his father, the reaction, not reporting to the police, David wanting time to think, leaving the body? (And David and his previous hallucination, seeing the boy?)
10. The explanation, Thomas giving the gift of the ticket for the trip? His cultivating the couple? His vindictiveness? His explanation of his grief? The manager of the inn as his brother?
11. The final dramatics, melodramatic, the other brother arriving, the rifles, shots fired, accidental deaths? Nadja with the rifle, her being shot and killed? The confronted with confrontation with David, his pleading to be shot, Thomas letting him live with the grief of his wife’s death?