Arne Goes to Space

Earth can be an odd and confounding place even for its regular inhabitants, never mind an interplanetary traveller like the one who enters the lives of two brothers in Arne Goes To Space. The chance to see our planet from this unusual perspective makes for a delightfully odd yet warm-hearted film by Sweden’s Lars Vega.

Arne (Lennart Jähkel) and Stefan (Rolf Lassgård) are two elderly siblings still living on the farm where they were raised by their parents in a sleepy rural community in the northern Swedish province of Norrbotten. Though the personality differences between the talkative, sunny Arne and the taciturn, crotchety Stefan become stark over the course of their daily and nightly routines, it’s just as clear how well the brothers complement each other.

Yet along with some worrying news about Arne’s health, another development threatens to upset the household’s longstanding order when an alien spacecraft crash lands in the woods nearby. That the brothers and their neighbours are so unfazed by the presence of a three-foot-tall extraterrestrial (played by Hollywood veteran Kiran Shah) — who Arne names “Roland” in a characteristically friendly gesture — is one of the many rich sources of comedy in Vega’s debut feature.

Boasting the same flair for small-town surrealism and affection for his characters that the director displayed in his award-winning shorts, Arne Goes To Space blossoms into a charming and utterly distinctive ode to the value of family and community, and to the challenges of facing uncertainties at any stage of life.

JASON ANDERSON

Content advisory: coarse language