Synopsis
They say that the Republic of Korea is a republic of criminals, where the criminals must run faster than the cops. However, in a small village in Sweden, what all the cops do is get rid of cows blocking the road. But the policemen are nevertheless proud of their work. One day, a ‘public enemy’ appears in the guise of Jessica-a bureaucrat from the Ministry of Finance who is determined to get rid of the police station within 3 months, all in the name of reduction of appropriation. is the second film by Lebanese-Swede director Josef Fares. Compared to his other two films, the new film is devoid of darkness, and filled with humor. The 3 policeman in his film do not guide the fellow villagers by either deed of arms or professional consciousness, but by actions that are unintentionally funny. The days of raising a cat in the office and fooling around with a hockey stick are gone. To cling to their jobs, they must persuade Jessica of the need for the continued existence of the police station. To achieve this end, they plan on disrupting the peace of the village with crimes. They kick over the neighborhood trash cans, and make a wino rob a supermarket, they set fire to a hot dog joint and fire guns from a forest, later claiming that it was an attack by the mafia .But no one believes anything. How can they, when nothing that the policemen do makes any sense? Although the policemen’s efforts to deceive Jessica are somewhat unimaginable to Korean audience, the film does give us the hint that there is bitterness of life and conflicks between classes even in Sweden. The best performance is delivered by policeman Benny, who, enraptured by , endlessly dreams of catching a thief. His dream sequences, where he shoots a gun between his legs, is a comic highlight.(Felix Kim)