Play (2011) is a Swedish film directed by Ruben Östlund. Like Östlund's previous feature, The Involuntary (2008), it can be described as a sociologically oriented film that concentrates on everyday conflicts in Swedish society. It may be less visceral than Dogville and Funny Games, and less elusive than Elephant and I Can't Sleep, but it certainly engages the body of the spectator in a confrontational and non-cathartic way. It deals with highly controversial subject matter in a manner that postpones judgement, and more generally it seems grounded in the idea of the movie theatre as an experiential venue: it is a feel-bad film.

Like the films in the beginning of the second chapter, Play is based on real events. These took place between 2006 and 2008 in central Gothenburg where five 12–14-year-old boys of African descent had developed a scheme to harass and con slightly younger boys. They implicated the younger boys in an elaborate ploy during which the black boys played on racial stereotypes, eventually deceiving their victims out of money and other belongings. Play focuses on one such con episode in which three younger boys (one of them of Asian descent, the other two, typical, blond Scandinavian boys) are tricked into giving away their mobile phones and wallets, and one of them even his trousers. Östlund works with non-professional actors. He bases part of the dialogue on transcriptions from the court case against the five boys, interviewing the perpetrators, the victims, the psychiatrists and some of the policemen involved in the case. Even though he makes a stylised film, Östlund is clearly concerned with realism.

Thematically and stylistically Play is first of all inspired by the films of Michael Haneke. The title resonates with Funny Games, and just as in Haneke's film we watch a very unpleasant set-up punctuated by shorter scenes of sadistic play. In Haneke's film the mother is forced to play hot/cold and recite prayers by heart, while in Östlund's film the boys race each other, and one of the blonde boys is tricked into doing eighty-six push-ups. It can be argued that these humiliations eventually allow the black boys to con their victims, but as in Funny Games these incidents are also just a perverse way of passing time.