Redoubt

Swede Karl-Göran Persson became a local legend in his own lifetime after becoming obsessed with a Cold War pamphlet issued by the Swedish government entitled If War Comes. He took the instruction guide for staying safe so seriously that he set about fortifying his own home, with anything he could find or buy in a bid to create a safe retreat for himself and those in his community.

Director John Skoog has, in turn, become fascinated by Persson’s story, which he first heard about as a child and which he has already brought to the screen in 2014 short film art installation Reduit. Now he has built upon that with an immersive character study which is packed with striking visuals shot with architectural splendour in 35mm monochrome by Polish cinematographer Ita Zbroniec-Zajt.

If you’re looking for someone to occupy a role that relies as much on physicality and movement as dialogue, then you could scarcely opt for better than French star Denis Lavant. The wiry and diminutive frame of the Holy Motors star is perfect for accentuating the gargantuan nature of the task that Persson took upon himself. As he roves the countryside surrounding his home looking for scrap to add to thicken his walls, we come to realise he carries all of it home either on foot or bike.

Wideshots emphasise his smallness against the loads he is often carrying while the measured nature of the filmmaking also indicates the time investment involved. Still, as one of his neighbours puts it: “He’s a persistent little bastard.” That is illustrated not just in his doggedness at taking everything from old tyres to railway sleepers but in a beautifully worked moment of physical performance from Lavant, as we watch Persson attempt to cut down an enormous tree with a two-man saw, scampering repeatedly from one side to the other.

Persson finds a particular connection with the children in the community, who are fascinated by his creation but also on the same imaginative wavelength as him, somehow, more open to his beliefs than their parents, as we see them working on their own fort.

The production design of Redoubt is nothing short of a triumph, with Skoog working with a number of crafts people to recreate Persson’s home, if not quite brick by brick, then certainly in spirit. The time has been well spent as it allows Zbroniec-Zajt’s camera to rove within the 360 degree space that has been created, so we can drink in the sculptural magnificence and textured nature of the place. Carefully crafted sound design merges with Amina Phocine’s score, which features rumbles and, periodically, something that recalls the wail of a distant air raid siren. It may just be a patch of farmland, but Skoog often creates a sense of the foreboding Persson feels, including an apocalyptic moment of stubble burning.

Skoog crafts a love letter to eccentricity that feels like a kissing cousin of the work of British artist/director Ben Rivers, who has also shown a fascination with off-the-grid attitudes. Redoubt also feels like a lament to things that have since been lost, not least much of the communal farmwork we observe Persson taking part in but which we can see is soon to be overtaken by mechanisation, even as the scrap vestiges of hand labour make their way into the walls of his home. Skoog’s film has a paradoxical feel, being at once a celebration of a willingness to help others and a cautionary tale about bunker mentality and has been carefully constructed to make you think.

Reviewed on: 05 Oct 2025