The King of Ping Pong

Plot summary

Taking place in northern Sweden, the film is about obese teenager Rille who loves to play ping pong, in which he wins against younger kids. While not playing table tennis, he has to deal with bullies and his younger sibling. Their mother tries to start a hairdressing operation from her home during her children's spring break. The father gets his children into all sorts of bizarre situations, which prompts Rille to wonder if the man really is their father.

Production

The film was written by the director Jonsson and Hans Gunnarsson. Askild Vik Edvardsen was the cinematographer and Josefin Asberg was the production designer. Justin Lowe wrote for the Associated Press that Jonsson and Gunnarson "keep the film's slightly off-kilter comedy reinforced by occasional visual puns" and that "Cinematographer Askild Vik Edvardsen bathes the proceedings with wintry-filtered light that's well suited to the sedate camerawork". The camerawork was compared to that of Roy Andersson by the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Release

It competed in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival where it received the Grand Jury Prize: World Cinema and the World Cinema Cinematography Award.

Reception

Rob Hunter, writing for Film School Rejects, gave the film a B-, saying, "An interesting and peculiarly Swedish take on the coming-of-age theme, the movie is worth watching for folks with patience". The film received 3 and half stars out of five from VPRO.