Winner of the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence plays out in a series of linked and stand-alone vignettes.
Andersson’s film loosely follows two narrative threads. Sweden’s warring King Charles XII returns unexpectedly from the 18th century to gallop about in cafes and recruit unsuspecting modern men for his impending war with Russia. Meanwhile, two hapless salesmen travel in and out of the frame selling vampire fangs, laugh bags and fright masks.
Andersson’s reoccurring examinations of colonialism, the Holocaust, beauty and absurdity fill each scene.
The other parts of the trilogy, Songs From The Second Floor (2000), which won the Jury Prize at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and marked Andersson’s return to filmmaking after a 25 year hiatus, and 2007’s You, The Living will also screen at ACMI.
