As We're Told

As We're Told

2018 · 28 min · ★ 9.0 · Documentary

"It's simple! We do as we're told." This disconcerting reply comes from a Swedish employment office employee when asked how the country’s most unpopular government agency works. And that’s not all: in this creative documentary, case workers, receptionists and psychologists reveal how the Swedish employment system is failing. They complain about inadequate software and mystifying error messages, excessive caseloads and demoralizing results—on average, each case worker helps just 10 people find work each year, and only one in 10 clients will find a new job. To assure the anonymity of the interviewees, they're all represented by cardboard puppets. Thanks to visible puppeteers, expressive eyes and recognizable gestures, these puppets quickly take on the appearance of real people. The result is a fascinating, comical and artistic study of human strategies to get along in an irrational bureaucracy.

Directed by Fredrik Wenzel

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Streaming

Cast

Make it a double feature

2h 59m together

As We're Told

The Square

Both from Fredrik Wenzel.

More from Fredrik WenzelSee all →

We Are Who We Are

We Are Who We Are · 2020

We Are Who We Are

Two American kids who live on a U.S. military base in Italy explore friendship, first love, identity, and all the messy exhilaration and anguish of being a teenager.

Triangle of Sadness

Triangle of Sadness · 2022

Triangle of Sadness

MovieComedyDrama

A celebrity model couple are invited on a luxury cruise for the uber-rich, helmed by an unhinged, alcoholic captain. What first appears Instagrammable ends catastrophically, leaving the survivors stranded on a desert island in a struggle of hierarchy.

Force Majeure

Force Majeure · 2014

While holidaying in the French Alps, a Swedish family deals with acts of cowardliness as an avalanche breaks out.

Problemista

Problemista · 2024

Alejandro is an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador, struggling to bring his unusual ideas to life in New York City. As time on his work visa runs out, a job assisting an erratic art-world outcast becomes his only hope to stay in the country and realize his dream.

The Square

The Square · 2017

A prestigious Stockholm museum's chief art curator finds himself in times of both professional and personal crisis as he attempts to set up a controversial new exhibit.

After Work

After Work · 2023

MovieDocumentary

Kuwait’s constitution says that every person has the right to a job, so in some places 20 people are employed for one person’s job. In South Korea, they work so much that a policy has been introduced to turn off computers at the end of the day so that employees can’t work any more. In the US, they give up over 500 million holiday hours each year, while Amazon’s drivers are trying to form a union. Meanwhile, robots are poised to take over most jobs and put the rest of us out of work. Work is so crucial to our identity and what we spend our waking hours on that it is barely noticed anymore. A lot has happened since a group of Puritan priests invented the concept of work ethic in the 1600s, and in the 21st century the very concept of work is in many ways disintegrating. A perfect situation for a filmmaker like Swedish mastermind Erik Gandini, who travels the world to explore what the concept of work means today – if it means anything at all.

Falkenberg Farewell

Falkenberg Farewell · 2006

Falkenberg Farewell

The last summer the five boys are together in Falkenberg. They are now grown up to be young men, on their way out into the world. At least most of them.

The Ape

The Ape · 2009

MovieDramaThriller

A descent into hell, Jesper Ganslandt's disturbing and suspenseful second feature begins with a man waking up in unfamiliar surroundings, only to find the life he knew the day before is gone.

Broder Daniel Forever

Broder Daniel Forever · 2009

Broder Daniel Forever

MovieDocumentaryMusic

A film about iconic Swedish indie pop band Broder Daniel as they reunite during the summer 2008 before their last ever performance as a group. A concert held in honor of guitarist Anders who committed suicide earlier this year. It is a performance, and a portrait and a last goodbye from a band with more unconditional willpower than any other.

Beneath the Pavement, the Beach

Beneath the Pavement, the Beach · 2024

Beneath the Pavement, the Beach

Role-playing and multiple narrative layers are interwoven in a complex and philosophical film about learning, life perspectives, and facing profound changes.

Burrowing

Burrowing · 2009

An eleven-year-old boy observes his neighborhood as its surface orderliness rots away.

The Quiet Roar

The Quiet Roar · 2014

MARIANNE (Evabritt Strandberg) is a 68-year old woman diagnosed with a terminal disease. Left with angst, she seeks therapy at a clinic where she is treated with Psilocybin (LSD) and meditation by a counselor, Eva (Hanna Schygulla). Through this she is transferred to her subconscious, where she meets and confronts her 25-year old self and her former husband.

The Entertainment System Is Down

The Entertainment System Is Down

The Entertainment System Is Down

MovieDramaComedy

Set on a long-haul flight where the entertainment systems fail, an eclectic group of international passengers are forced to face the horror of being bored.

The Contract

The Contract · 2010

MovieDocumentary

In 2005 Beverly Charpentier declared an oath of allegiance to French writer Catherine Robbe-Grillet. In doing so she gave up her freedom for the rest of her life. The Contract portrays two strong women's unconventional love story, two women who have chosen to explore their love in a unique way, without compromise.

Nina Hedenius - ett ögonblick i sänder

Nina Hedenius - ett ögonblick i sänder · 2023

Nina Hedenius - ett ögonblick i sänder

MovieDocumentary

Documentary about director and cinematographer Nina Hedenius, who focused on life in the Swedish countryside and created classics such as "The Old Man in the Cottage" (1996). Hedenius was one of the first students at Christer Strömholm's photography school but then dropped out, which was the start of 60 years of persevering film production about life in stillness, vibrant moments and the enchantment of everyday life. Later on she reluctantly let the filmmaker and photographer Fredrik Wenzel into her home, who draws a tender and close portrait of one of the great filmmakers of our time.

Charismatic Megafauna

Charismatic Megafauna · 2019

Charismatic Megafauna

MovieDocumentary

Life in hypermodernity seen from the cosmic perspective in a visionary masterpiece, where time and space transcend the human scale.

More Like This

Couldn't load this row right now.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter