KOKO-DI KOKO-DA
Groundhog slay…
Written, directed, produced and edited by Swedish oddbod Johannes Nyholm (The Giant), Koko-di Koko-da is a continuation of his 2017 short The Music Box. Though it’s been billed as The Babadook meets Groundhog Day, don’t be fooled – that’s a better description of plot than quality.
After their daughter dies in a bizarre shellfish-related incident, grieving couple Elin (Ylva Gallon) and Tobias (Leif Edlund) go on the world’s worst camping trip. When Elin gets up to pee in the night, she is attacked by a trio of sinister fantasy figures lead by Peter Belli’s smirking Child Catcher-alike (“Koko-di Koko-da” is their circus-style theme song). The trio kill her and incapacitate him, and the sequence starts over again, repeating in hellish circles while the couple try all the different possible permutations of action in order to escape, most of which end with her dead and him getting shot in the balls.
Yep, it’s a metaphor for grieving, although how to explain the beautiful if ultimately
exasperating animation which ekes things out to feature length is another matter. The couple’s plight becomes tense through a kind of filmic Stockholm Syndrome, and there’s a lovely score by Olof Cornéer and Simon Ohlsson. But for all the skill and invention on display, you can’t escape the feeling it might have worked better as a(nother) short rather than feature length. Though spooky and striking, it sometimes tips over from freaky to wacky. Like Elin and Tobias, you end up just wanting to go home. Matt Glasby
THE VERDICT
Though it sometimes feels padded, there’s Lynchian ambition at work here.