A couple floats over a war-torn Cologne. A father stops to tie his daughter’s shoelaces in the rain on the way to a birthday party. Meanwhile, teenage girls dance outside a café, and a defeated army marches to a prisoner-of-war camp. Lives past and present attempt to find meaning in the world.

Swedish auteur Roy Andersson won the Silver Lion for Best Director in Venice for his sharp outlook on the absurdity and vulnerability of human experience. Behind deadpan scenes of melancholy and cruelty, one can find shining glimpses of hope and compassion: a sublime elixir for our disillusionment.