A Portrait of Isolation in a World on Edge

MOVIE REVIEW
Redoubt (Värn)
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Genre: Drama, Historical, Art Film
Year Released: 2025
Runtime: 1h 25m
Director(s): John Skoog
Writer(s): John Skoog, Kettil Kasang
Cast: Denis Lavant, Michalis Koutsogiannakis, Livia Millhagen, Agnieszka Podsiadlik, Sol Roach
Where to Watch: shown at the 2025 San Sebastian Film Festival

RAVING REVIEW: REDOUBT unfolds like a memory carved into stone, stark and inflexible, yet pulsating with a deep unease that never quite disappears. Director John Skoog has crafted a film that sits at the intersection of history and hallucination. In this story, a man’s compulsion to protect his community bleeds into obsession, blurring the line between vigilance and paranoia. Shot in black and white, the film captures not just an era’s atmosphere but the psychology of one individual whose life is bent under the weight of Cold War dread.

The film centers on Karl-Göran Persson, played with gravitas by Denis Lavant, an actor who has long specialized in embodying restless, haunted figures. Inspired by the Swedish government’s pamphlet Om kriget kommer (“If War Comes”), Persson becomes consumed with the idea of fortifying his farmhouse into a fortress that will shield not only himself but also his neighbors when conflict inevitably arrives. What begins as a practical precaution soon metastasizes into a personal crusade.

Rather than lean on dialogue, Skoog lets the visual language carry the narrative, and it does so beautifully. There’s something about endless fields that present a gorgeous image in black & white. The silence of the rural landscape contrasts with Persson’s work, the hammer strikes echoing as if they were warnings from the future. The cinematography amplifies the starkness, casting Persson’s project in tones that suggest both documentary realism and gothic fable. Life continues around him, yet Persson’s stronghold expands like a shadow, dominating his existence.

The supporting cast, including Michalis Koutsogiannakis and Livia Millhagen, serve as quiet counterpoints, their appearances reminding viewers that life in the village continues even as Persson’s fixation deepens. Agnieszka Podsiadlik and Sol Roach, too, add brief but memorable presences that ground the story in humanity, but make no mistake—this is Persson’s story, and Lavant’s screen presence ensures it stays that way. His physicality, even in stillness, communicates both defiance and fragility. He is a man building against his own insignificance as much as against foreign invasion.

Skoog and co-writer Kettil Kasang resist melodrama, allowing Persson’s project to grow over time like a creeping vine. Years pass in the narrative, yet the outside world never truly intrudes upon it. Instead, the stronghold becomes a metaphor for Cold War psychology: how fear shapes behavior, how preparation can curdle into imprisonment, and how the anticipation of war can sometimes be as destructive as war itself.

The aesthetic approach recalls European art cinema of the 1960s—Antonioni’s alienation, Tarkovsky’s patience, Béla Tarr’s sense of decay—but Skoog’s voice is distinct. He chooses not to overwhelm with philosophy but to let imagery and repetition suggest the toll of paranoia. The result is hypnotic but also demanding. Viewers looking for narrative impetus or clear resolutions may find themselves adrift. REDOUBT doesn’t offer catharsis in the traditional sense; it reflects, and sometimes frustrates, as one confronts a story that refuses to wrap up the way you want it to.

That risk is also its strength. At 85 minutes, the film avoids indulgence but still stretches time, allowing the audience to sit with Persson’s isolation until it becomes almost tactile. The film’s cadence mirrors the monotony of construction: one task followed by another, each carried out with a mixture of hope and futility. By the final act, Persson’s creation looms not as a triumph but as a question mark. Has he secured safety, or has he entombed himself in the very fear he sought to escape?

The film may face resistance due to its deliberate opacity. Some will call it simple to a fault, others will argue that its thematic weight justifies the pacing. Either way, Skoog has ensured that REDOUBT won’t fade away in the minds of its viewers—it’s too visually striking, too stubbornly itself to be dismissed. For those open to films that prioritize mood and meditation over plot, it offers a haunting experience.

REDOUBT stands as a quiet but forceful meditation on fear, obsession, and the human need to build meaning when the world seems precarious. It’s not a film for everyone, but for the right audience, it’s a temple worth entering, even if you leave unsettled by what you’ve seen.

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[photo courtesy of PLATTFORM PRODUKTION, BORD CADRE FILMS, BUFO, FILM I SKÅNE, LEMMING FILM, PALOMA PRODUCTIONS]

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