Pia Aleborg

Director Mikel Cee Karlsson is working on a film with and about his best friend Mathias – a young father who one day reveals that he is living a double life. Circumstances have driven Mathias into a criminal underworld where debts seem impossible to pay off. In a spiral of threats, lies and violence, Mathias is desperately looking for a way out. When things finally seem to look up for him, the pressure he has lived under for several years has fatal consequences, leaving Mikel forced to make crucial decisions about the film he is working on.

As a couple goes on a trip to find their way back to each other, a sideshow artist and his shady entourage emerge from the woods, terrorizing them, luring them deeper into a maelstrom of psychological terror and humiliating slapstick.

In central Gothenburg, Sweden, a group of boys, aged 12-14, robbed other children on about 40 occasions between 2006 and 2008. The thieves used an elaborate scheme called the 'little brother number' or 'brother trick', involving advanced role-play and gang rhetoric rather than physical violence.

In several unrelated stories, the consequences of putting one's foot down – or failing to do so – are explored.