In response to his disenchantment with popular crime shows like CSI and Law and Order, Jesper Ganslandt created The Ape – a film which challenges our malformed notions about the nature of crime and offers a profoundly chilling perspective on the subject.
The Ape follows a day in the life of Krister, a seemingly ordinary man who wakes up one morning in a pool of blood. The disoriented Krister immediately panics and frantically searches his body for wounds, but we quickly learn that the blood is not his own. This discovery begs the question we will ponder for the majority of the film – whose blood is that?
Throughout The Ape, Ganslandt employs the use of gripping, emotive close-up shots which evoke a cage-like, suffocating feeling. As Krister’s palpable tension mounts, the audience finds themselves increasingly anxious and uneasy. We are trapped in an isolated uncertainty, unsure of what has transpired or why.
Ace in the hole, Olle Sarri (who is ironically a popular comedian by trade), delivers a compelling, anguished performance. During the Q&A which followed this screening of his film, Ganslandt explained that he intentionally kept Sarri in the dark in order to make his character appear more unsure and uncomfortable. In fact, Sarri was not even permitted to see the film’s script, a fact which renders his performance all the more impressive.
Fraught with ambiguity and inconclusiveness, The Ape deviates from the typical, formulaic thriller in that the film refrains from explicitly spelling out the intricacies of Krister’s story. Drawing his inspiration from real life crimes which are rarely solved, let alone understood, Ganslandt expertly delivers an unnerving mystery in The Ape. (9 stars out of 10)
For more information about Guest Filmmaker Jesper Ganslandt or the Cleveland International Film Festival, visit clevelandfilm.org.
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