The Swedish Theory of Love

For many people around the world, the Nordic social model is an ideal organization of society. A peak in the history of civilization, and a shimmering example for others to follow. Or is it? What kind of society have we actually created for ourselves? The Swedish iconoclast Erik Gandini takes a loving and critical look at our little corner of the world from the other end of the telescope and finds the recipe for the good Nordic life in a manifesto published by the political elite in Sweden in the 1970s. Here, one would find that happiness is a life lived in freedom – from others. And so it has been ever since. But the question is whether our individualism and independence have isolated us from each other. Is the price of happiness a lifetime of loneliness? Like a sociologist from another planet, Gandini travels across the globe (and Scandinavia) drawing startling parallels between our way of life and all the other forms it could have taken. Over the years, Gandini has specialised in a poignant kind of political pop art essays, and in bringing to the surface surprising patterns in vast amounts of data. A combination that is tailored to letting us re-examine the Nordic model from the outside in a film of global relevance.