''The King of Ping Pong'' ( sv, Ping-pongkingen) is a 2008

Swedish film Swedish cinema is known for including many acclaimed films; during the 20th century the industry was the most prominent of Scandinavia. This is largely due to the popularity and prominence of directors Victor Sjöström and especially Ingmar Ber ...

directed by Jens Jonsson, who also co-wrote the film with Hans Gunnarsson. The film revolves around a dysfunctional family, including a teenager Rille. It was featured and won two awards at the

2008 Sundance Film Festival The 2008 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 17, 2008 to January 27 in Park City, Utah. It was the 24th iteration of the Sundance Film Festival. The opening night film was ''In Bruges'' and the closing night film was '' CSNY Déjà Vu''. Films ...

. It received mostly positive reception.

Plot summary

Taking place in northern Sweden, the film is about obese teenager Rille who loves to play

ping pong Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

, in which he wins against younger kids. While not playing table tennis, he has to deal with bullies and his younger sibling. Their mother tries to start a hairdressing operation from her home during her children's spring break. The father gets his children into all sorts of bizarre situations, which prompts Rille to wonder if the man really is their father.

Production

The film was written by the director Jonsson and Hans Gunnarsson. Askild Vik Edvardsen was the cinematographer and Josefin Åsberg was the production designer. Justin Lowe wrote for the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

that Jonsson and Gunnarson "keep the film's slightly off-kilter comedy reinforced by occasional visual puns" and that "Cinematographer Askild Vik Edvardsen bathes the proceedings with wintry-filtered light that's well suited to the sedate camerawork". The camerawork was compared to that of

Roy Andersson Roy Arne Lennart Andersson (born 31 March 1943) is a Swedish film director, best known for ''A Swedish Love Story'' (1970), '' About Endlessness'' (2019) and his "Living trilogy," which includes '' Songs from the Second Floor'' (2000), '' You, ...

by the

International Film Festival Rotterdam The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental fi ...

Release

It competed in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the

where it received the Grand Jury Prize: World Cinema and the World Cinema Cinematography Award.

Reception

Rob Hunter, writing for

Film School Rejects Film School Rejects is an American blog devoted to movie reviews, interviews, film industry news, and feature commentary. It was founded by Neil Miller in February 2006. The site was nominated for Best News Blog by ''Total Film'' magazine and na ...

, gave the film a B−, saying, "An interesting and peculiarly Swedish take on the coming-of-age theme, the movie is worth watching for folks with patience". The film received 3 and half stars out of five from

VPRO The VPRO (stylized vpro; originally an acronym for , ) is a Dutch public broadcaster, which forms a part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. Founded in 1926 as a liberal Protestant broadcasting organization, it gradually became more soc ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:King Of Ping Pong 2008 films Swedish independent films Sundance Film Festival award winners Table tennis films Films about dysfunctional families Films directed by Jens Jonsson