To truly sum up Lukas Moodysson, you need to understand him. The most visceral way to do this is via his films. Thankfully Arrow have done just this. Well they have also smattered this set with a rather arid conversation between him and Sarah Lutton. Among other faces and names from the films. The set has seven films, from his first, FUCKING AMAL or SHOW ME LOVE, to his most comfrontational, LILYA 4 EVER, on to his most abstract with both HOLE IN MY HEART and CONTAINER and ending with his adaptation of his wife Coco’s film, WE ARE THE BEST!

For me the best film here is TOGETHER, his ensemble character piece about a 1970s commune and its personal, political and cultural mechanics. I loved it on my first watch. Moodyssons restraint is clever, allowing people to talk and be heard. Fleshing out character and still not compromising on the world they inhabit as a space of exotic majesty and visceral intellegence. Moodysson discusses this film, with warmth. Maybe not probed enough or not given enough time, he says a few choice words but doesnt really get into the mix in his 15 or so minutes. This has been well served, both by the HD, which has kept the rich 70s colours vitally, intact. Obviously it would do, taken from the negative and approved by Lukas Moodysson and cinematographer Ulf Brantås.

His hardest to watch is LILYA 4 EVER, a shocking comment of the sex trafficing industry. When a young woman from post Soviet Russia, is left abandoned and then duped into a life of prostitution. It should answer to a few, why some cross Europe, South and Central America and Asia, to reach safety. Avoiding the horrors of the corruption of the self and how money is the ultimate driver of humanity. Charting humans at their most vulnerable, most intimate and most destroyed. It is a hymn not of optimism but pain. The extra content here is a few short interviews and they lack some of the more , richer analysis of the film. It does look good mind. Very much retaining one key piece of why money need be paid. Same could be said of A HOLE IN MY HEART and on the same disc CONTAINER, FUCKING AMAL and of course WE ARE THE BEST. Well I am slightly wrong as A New Expression, the extra about punk history in Sweden, is excellent. Sometimes funny and othertimes just really insightful. The film which gets the best treatment is MAMMOTH, an above average film about disconnection in the age of globalisation. It is Moodysson first English langauge film but, unlike other films he directed, its influence of Bergman is less and instead, his modern and most comprehensively humanist range, is metered out. This has so little extra value mind.

Limited Edition Boxset Contents

• High Definition (1080p) Bluray presentations of all seven films
• Original DTSHD MA 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo mixes for all seven films
• Optional English subtitles for all films, plus English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing on Mammoth and the English version of Container
• New video interviews with Lukas Moodysson and other cast and crew, moderated by film programmer Sarah Lutton
• 200page hardback book featuring new writing by Peter Walsh, excerpts from the original press kits for each film, including interviews with and directors’ statements from Moodysson, and essays on his films from a 2014 special issue of the Nordic culture journal Scandinavica by C. Claire Thomson, Helga H. Lúthersdóttir, Elina Nilsson, Scott MacKenzie & Anna Westerståhl Stenport and Kjerstin Moody

Disc One:

• 2K restoration by the Swedish Film Institute, approved by director Lukas Moodysson and cinematographer Ulf Brantås
• New interview with Lukas Moodysson
• New interview with star Alexandra Dahlström
• Did You Know She’s A Lesbian?, an appreciation by Dr. Clara BradburyRance, author of Lesbian Cinema After Queer Theory
• Talk (Bara prata lite), a short film directed by Moodysson in 1997
• Theatrical trailer
• Image gallery

Disc Two:

• 4K restoration by the Swedish Film Institute from the original camera negative, approved by director Lukas Moodysson and cinematographer Ulf Brantås
• New interview with Lukas Moodysson
• New interview with script supervisor Malin Fornander
• New interview with editor Michal Leszczylowski
• Deleted scenes
• Theatrical trailer
• Image gallery

Disc Three:

• New interview with Lukas Moodysson
• New interview with costume designer Denise Östholm
• Guardian Interview with Lukas Moodysson, a Q&A with the director filmed at the London Film Festival in 2002
• Theatrical trailer
• Image gallery

Disc Four:

• New interviews with Lukas Moodysson on both films
• Lukas Moodysson Masterclass, an interview with the director filmed at London’s National Film & Television School in 2004
• A Hole in My Second Heart, a behindthescenes featurette from 2004
• Swedish and English narration options for Container
• Inside the Container Crypt, a 2007 featurette on the themes of Container
• Theatrical trailers and image galleries for both films

Disc Five:

• New interview with Lukas Moodysson
• New interview with line producer Malte Forssell
• Promotional interviews with Moodysson and Gael Garcia Bernal from 2009
• Theatrical trailer
• Image gallery

Disc Six:

• New interview with Lukas Moodysson
• New interview with cinematographer Ulf Brantås
• A New Expression, a look at the background to the film by Swedish punk historian David Andersson
• Q&A from the 2013 London Film Festival screening, featuring Moodysson and stars Liv LeMoyne and Mira Barkhammar
• Theatrical trailer
• Image gallery