Redoubt (2025)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Affected by the powerful images in the pamphlet Om kriget kommer (If war comes), farmhand Karl-Göran Persson (Denis Lavant) begins fortifying his house. Through years of harvesting scrap-metal, he transforms the house into a fortress, meant to protect him and his neighbors when the enemy attacks. As the task progresses, reality and the threat of future destruction become intertwined, and construction becomes an obsession for the lonely Karl-Göran.
- Actors:
- Michalis Koutsogiannakis, Denis Lavant, Livia Millhagen, Agnieszka Podsiadlik, Sol Roach
- Directors:
- John Skoog
- Producers:
- Caroline Drab, Erik Hemmendorff
- Writers:
- Kettil Kasang, John Skoog
- Aka:
- Värn
- Genres:
- Drama
- Countries:
- Sweden
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Reviews (1) of Redoubt
Scrapheap Shelter, Quiet Beauty - Redoubt review by griggs
You can watch Redoubt two ways. One one level, it’s a beautifully shot Cold War how to guide: Denis Levant pottering about the Swedish countryside, scavenging scrap and calmly building himself a bomb-proof house. On another, it’s a slow, word-light character study that trusts his body more than his dialogue.
Lavant’s physicality is the whole show – the way he hefts metal, shifts rails, or pads around his half-built bunker tells you more than any backstory could. The black-and-white images are gorgeously lit, turning scrap into sculpture. When he does briefly collide with other people, the scenes are blocked and choreographed with an almost balletic awkwardness.
Coming so soon after The Brutalist, which luxuriates in space as spectacle, Redoubt quietly argues that beauty lies in use. It’s sparse, maybe a bit too wispy as drama, but I was happy to sit in this odd little shelter and watch him build his world.