It should come as no surprise, really, that Lukas Moodysson's Mammut - or Mammoth as it will be known in English - seems to have very little in common with the Swedish director's previous films Container and A Hole In My Heart. Really, that much was guaranteed the moment that Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams were cast in the leads. You just can't cast actors like that and then ask them to endure the sorts of things Moodysson has subjected his actors to in earlier efforts and while I could see Bernal doing it I can't imagine Williams ever willingly subjecting herself to the sort of raw emotional battering - to say nothing of the expose flesh - of those sorts of films. But, honestly, I don't know that I expected it to be quite this much of a change.
Mammut is quite easily the biggest film Moodysson has attempted to date, a continent hopping affair that intertwines the life of three principal characters: a successful businessman (Bernal) on a trip to Thailand, his doctor wife (Williams) back home, and their Filipino maid. With the film due for theatrical release in Sweden in January the first trailer has just arrived and while I'm sure it will have a feeling all its own this first glimpse comes across, surprisingly, like a cleaner, tidier version of Babel. Check it out below the break.