Dubbed “a slapstick Ingmar Bergman,” the Swedish director Roy Andersson emerged from a twenty-year exile from the Scandinavian film industry to become one of its utmost original voices. Most famous for his recently completed “human trilogy” of films, Andersson has adapted poetry ranging from the works of César Vallejo to ancient Norse Poetic Edda and an absurdist and comically deadpan view on the trials and tribulations of life in today’s society.

Working with a small group of tight-knit collaborators, known as “the Team,” Andersson’s productions use an elaborate, labor-intensive and proudly artisanal process to construct complex tableaux sets and styling. His work forms a bitingly humorous and sophisticated philosophical take on the human condition. 

Celebrating the recent completion of the “human trilogy,” MAD presents It’s Hard to Be Human: The Cinema of Roy Andersson, a retrospective of this unique auteur’s work. Tracing Andersson’s career from his early 1970s features, including his breakout success A Swedish Love Story, short-film and commercial work as well as the “human trilogy,” It’s Hard to Be Human: The Cinema of Roy Andersson showcases this inimitable artist’s ability to continue to evolve the scope of cinema.

It’s Hard to Be Human: The Cinema of Roy Andersson is organized by Jake Yuzna, Director of Public Programs

This program was made possible in part with support from Magnolia Pictures.