Johannes Nyholm presenting Koko-di Koko-da at BAFICI 2019

''Koko-di Koko-da'' is a 2019 internationally co-produced

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

psychological horror Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre frequently overlaps with the related subge ...

film directed, produced and written by Johannes Nyholm. The film tells the story of a struggling couple on a camping trip in the woods to save their marriage, after the tragic death of their daughter on her eighth birthday during a vacation in

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three years prior, who find themselves in a

time loop The time loop or temporal loop is a plot device in fiction whereby characters re-experience a span of time which is repeated, sometimes more than once, with some hope of breaking out of the cycle of repetition. The term "time loop" is sometimes us ...

of agonizing torture, humiliating slapstick, and surreal dreams at the hands of a band of antagonistic nursery rhyme characters depicted on a

music box A music box (American English) or musical box (British English) is an automatic musical instrument in a box that produces musical notes by using a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc to pluck the tuned teeth (or ''lamellae'' ...

, which they had purchased for their daughter as a birthday gift prior to her death and birthday. The two have to find a way to heal their broken marriage, overcome their grief, and escape the macabre time loop of torture and murder.

Plot

Swedish couple Tobias and Elin dote on their only daughter, Maja. For her eighth birthday, they purchase her a music box depicting three nursery rhyme characters. However, during their vacation to

Skagen Skagen () is Denmark's northernmost town, on the east coast of the Skagen Odde peninsula in the far north of Jutland, part of Frederikshavn Municipality in Nordjylland, north of Frederikshavn and northeast of Aalborg. The Port of Skage ...

, Denmark for Maja's birthday, Elin is sent to the hospital due to an allergic reaction to shellfish from her mussel pizza at lunch. This is followed by the sudden death of Maja in her sleep on her birthday. Stricken with grief, Tobias and Elin's marriage begins to deteriorate as a result. Three years later in Sweden, Tobias and Elin go on a camping trip for vacation. They bicker constantly throughout the trip. As night falls, the couple is unable to find the campground they had intended to stay at and, despite Elin's protests, Tobias sets up camp in a wooded area off the side of the road. In the early morning, Elin leaves the tent to urinate and is accosted by three people who resemble the nursery rhyme characters from Maja's music box: the jovial and sharply dressed leader Mog, the hulking and animalistic Sampo - who carries a dead white dog at all times, and the stoic, witchlike Cherry. They torment Elin while Tobias watches from the tent, unsure of what to do, and eventually both are murdered. Tobias and Elin inexplicably awaken again, with Elin having no memory of the previous events and Tobias chalking it up to being just a dream. When Elin leaves the tent, the two again encounter the strange trio and are again murdered. As the cycle repeats, Tobias begins to understand that they are trapped in a time loop and attempts various means of escape with each new cycle, only to be killed and awaken each time. Eventually, a loop starts in which Elin awakens with Tobias gone and encounters their wrecked car with Tobias nowhere to be found. Elin enters a building in which the three characters perform a shadow play for her; two parent rabbits have a child who dies, and the parent rabbits are subsequently driven apart by their grief. As another loop starts, Tobias awakens in a panic and drags Elin to the car for another attempt at escape. They hit and kill a dog resembling the dead dog belonging to the trio and crash their car in a ditch. In their despair, Tobias and Elin comfort one another. Their fate is left ambiguous, but it is implied that through their love and acceptance of their mutual grief, they have escaped the time loop.

Cast

* Leif Edlund as Tobias *

Ylva Gallon Ylva (She-wolf, female Wolf) is an old Swedish female given name. It is the female form of the masculine given name Ulf and is one of the earliest names to appear in documents. The oldest written proof of the name's occurrence in Sweden was Ingrid ...

as Elin * Katarina Jakobson as Maja * Peter Belli as Mog * Morad Baloo Khatchadorian as Sampo * Brandy Litmanen as Cherry

Release

''Koko-di Koko-da'' was screened in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, ''Koko-di Koko-da'' holds an approval rating of , based on reviews, and an average rating of . Its consensus reads, "Using an effectively creepy setting and a beguilingly evasive approach, ''Koko-Di Koko-Da'' takes a chilling look at the long tail of grief."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Koko-di Koko-da 2019 films 2019 horror films 2019 multilingual films 2019 drama films 2010s psychological horror films 2019 fantasy films 2010s psychological drama films Danish horror drama films Danish fantasy films Swedish horror films 2010s Danish-language films Swedish fantasy films Dark fantasy films Surrealist films 2010s Swedish-language films Swedish drama films 2010s horror drama films Danish multilingual films Swedish multilingual films Time loop films 2010s Swedish films