The Square trailer: Ruben Östlund turns modern art into monkey business in this Oscar-nominated satire

Force Majeure director Ruben Östlund’s Oscar-nominated film The Square dropped its first trailer for Indian audiences ahead of its release on Friday.

The Swedish director Östlund serves us another incisive comedy with a side of biting social commentary in The Square, where he takes a jab at the pretentious nature of the art world, especially the grotesque conceptual installations in museums.

The trailer begins with Christian, the curator of an art museum (played by Claes Bang) talking about The Square, an installation that invites passers-by to acts of altruism. This is followed by shots comprising the various high-concept art installations as Christian finds himself dragged into shameful, chaotic situations. This includes a muscled, grunting man (Terry Notary) pretending to be a gorilla who wreaks havoc at a black-tie gala dinner by sniffing attendees.

Starring alongside Bang and Notary are acclaimed TV actors Dominic West (The Wire, The Affair) and Elizabeth Moss (Mad Men, The Handmaid’s Tale).

Hollywood’s gilded doors opened to Östlund when his 2014 black comedy Force Majeure — which explored family relationships fractured after an avalanche at a ski resort — won one of the smaller prizes at Cannes. The Square, however, took home the coveted Palme d’Or at Cannes last year.

It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards but lost to the Chilean film A Fantastic Woman.

The Square hits theatres in India on 16 March.