Koko-Di, Koko-Da (18)

Koko-Di, Koko-Da (18)

Director: Johannes Nyholm

Runtime: 86 minutes

Cast: Leif Edlund, Peter Belli, Ylva Gallon, Katarina Jakobson

Synopsis: Three years after a shattering personal tragedy, Elin and Tobias’ marriage is at breaking point. Consumed with unresolved pain and anger, the sparring pair head to the great outdoors for a camping trip in the hopes of salvaging their fractured relationship. But unbeknownst to these unhappy campers, they are not alone in the forest and soon Elin and Tobias find themselves trapped in a nightmarish cycle of torment and degradation from which there appears to be no escape.

URL: https://youtu.be/QF4XFkBqct0

Writer-director Johannes Nyholm (The Giant, 2016) brings us a surreal, nightmarish tale of terror which is stylish but unnerving in the extreme.

“Let’s stay like this all day long,” says little Maja (Katarina Jacobson), wishing that her happy pre-birthday excursion to Denmark with mum Elin (Ylva Gallon) and dad Tobias (Leif Edlund Johansson) could last forever. Tragedy quickly follows, and three years later Elin and Tobias are back on the road again, their relationship in freefall.

They attempt a return to normal life by taking a camping holiday together. Unsurprisingly, the trip gets off to a rocky start as the couple argue and bicker.

But these unhappy campers are not alone in the forest and soon Elin and Tobias find themselves trapped in a nightmarish cycle of torment and degradation from which there appears to be no escape.

The arrival of three curious strangers from the forest raises the fear factor. The trio appear to be characters from Maja’s musical box, and they set out to terrorise Elin and Tobias and lure them deeper into a maelstrom of psychological terror and humiliating slapstick in an unimaginable chain of horrors.

A visually stunning, phantasmagorical with beautiful animation, Koko-Di, Koko-Da intersects different genres and styles and the film moves nimbly from the absurd to the profound with major emotional themes like guilt, loss and abandonment.

 

Streaming on BFI Player

Images courtesy of BFI