Here’s the first trailer from Lukas Moodysson’s latest film MAMMOTH (or as it’s known in Swedish,
MAMMUT). I’ve always admired Moodysson. He’s one of the few filmmakers I can think of (Gus Van Sant
might be another) that seems to reinvent himself with every film he makes.

His first film FUCKING ÅMÅL (aka SHOW ME LOVE) is one of my favorites—a joyful coming-of-age tale
that heralded Moodysson as a major new talent. But then he suddenly switched gears with his third film
LILJA 4-EVER, a harrowing dive into the world of human trafficking. As different as LILJA 4-EVER was from
FUCKING ÅMÅL, I actually think I liked it better. It wasn’t as “feel good” (to say the least), but there was a
rawness in LILJA that I found exhilarating. Perhaps not surprisingly, Moodysson continued his
turn towards darker material with his next film, A HOLE IN MY HEART. And while it was nowhere near as
good as LILJA, I still respected Moodysson’s drive to experiment and push his own boundaries.

However on his next film he pushed his own boundaries right off the cliff. CONTAINER was a disaster, a
pretentious mess that made me fear that Moodysson had embraced non-narrative to a point-of-no-return.
Thankfully, judging by the trailer for MAMMOTH it appears my fears were unfounded. I actually think it
looks really interesting and promising.

Much like Van Sant seems to do, perhaps Moodysson needs to experiment as part of his storytelling
process, to keep moving himself forward. I’m okay with that if it means he can come back to making
narratives that are interesting and challenging. Hopefully MAMMOTH will fit the bill.

(video clip via Twitch)