Mammoth

A couple in New York: Leo, an internet entrepreneur, and Ellen, a surgeon working in the emergency room. Their daughter is looked after by Gloria, their Filipina nanny. Leo goes to Thailand for work. Gloria's own two sons are in the Philippines with their grandmother and have not seen their mother in years. The subject is not family but care work handed down a chain. Ellen cannot see her own daughter because she is treating other people's children; Gloria cannot see her sons because she is minding Ellen's daughter. At the end of the chain are two boys nobody is minding. The form is parallel cutting: three continents, three strands, people who never touch. Lukas Moodysson makes the connection not through plot but by placing similar scenes side by side. The title comes from a pen made of mammoth ivory that Leo buys in Thailand: expensive, unnecessary, its origin unclear. It is the first film Moodysson made in English and it competed at the Berlin film festival in 2009. Compared with his earlier work it was found far more didactic and critics split. Gael García Bernal, Michelle Williams and Marife Necesito lead. Who it is for: viewers who like multi-strand drama about globalisation. Who it is not for: anyone who will mind the message being stated outright; the film delivers its thesis as dialogue in several places.