En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tilvaron / A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence / Eine Taube sitzt auf einem Zweig und denkt über das Leben nach

One question seems to hover over 39 scenes of varying lengths: Why is humanity always so much closer to the end of the world than to utopia? We follow travelling salesmen Jonathan and Sam in laconic mini-dramas. Both their suits and their sales number have seen better days. "We work in the entertainment business“, is how they introduce themselves. Their suitcase is full of old-fashioned novelties – whoopee horns, monster masks, vampire fangs. As in previous films, Roy Andersson had the locations re-created, building stage spaces where history and stories overlap. Here's another way of talking about the discontent in culture: in one scene, soldiers in colonial uniforms drive people of colour into a copper extermination machine. In another, King Carl XII and his battle-ready troops lose their way and end up in a present-day Stockholm pub. The king has to use the loo and makes eyes at the waiter.