The Reunion

Anna was not invited to her own school reunion. As an artist she decides to do something about it: she constructs what would have happened if she had gone. The first half of the film is that construction, a reunion scene shot with actors and a speech in which Anna puts on the table what she could not say years ago. Then the second half begins. Anna finds her real classmates, shows each of them this film, and records their reactions. Anna Odell uses the line between fiction and documentary as a method. Nobody knows what will happen in the second half; some classmates agree to talk, some refuse, and some become angry. Those reactions are the film's real subject. Anna Odell directs and plays herself. The film won best film and best screenplay at the Guldbagge Awards. Who it's for: Viewers who like Swedish cinema, films between fiction and the real, and narratives about group dynamics. Who it's not for: Questions about the consent of the real people hang over the whole film. Some scenes are also uncomfortable to watch.