This deeply effective and chilling short piece, shows the emotional toll of complacency in a world where genocide and inhumanity exists all around us.

From the opening scene;, the gassing of a bunch of naked people in the back of a van by bland bureaucrats in what is obviously not Nazi Germany, but somewhere in modern Europe, Andersson is unafraid to challenge our idea that it couldn't happen again. And we don't all carry the seeds of inhumanity within us. And that, by living in that kind of a world, we are eventually torn up inside.

We follow a cadaverous man, who has witnessed this horror at the opening of the film as he slowly breaks apart.

And yet, this is not really a drama, it's more a super-black comedy. Indeed, this short embodies the best description I have read about Andersson – "Monty Python meets Ingmar Bergman".

But that doesn't do justice to the fact that the man has created a new and unique film language, and (as the behind the scenes pieces on his new "5 X Anderson:" set DVD shows) Andersson works with a perfectionism that is almost hard to believe to get exactly the right feel, lighting, acting and tone for each of his 1 take long static scenes in 1 shot.

BTW - I highly recommend the set for any admirers of Anderson's work. Seeing his student shorts as well as his two 'professional' shorts, this and "Something Has Happened", along with an entire disc of his working methods, and thinking behind his images, is really quite a treasure.

"Härlig är jorden" or "World of Glory" is an almost 25-year-old Swedish short film written and directed by Roy Andersson, who won the Golden Lion in Venice for one of his more recent works. The title is obviously meant in a very ironic manner, since this film is as bleak as it gets. We see a man look at the camera and tell us about his life, his work, his family and some other things in the most monotone manner. And yet, Andersson did not only succeed in making this somewhat atmospheric, but also included nice emotion in here. I enjoyed this 16-minute watch and it's obvious he has his very own style. i cannot say if he uses a similar approach in his other works, especially feature films, but this one here made me a bit curious about what else he has done, especially as it has been such a long time since this one here was made. All in all, a good watch, not outstanding, but certainly worth it.

This short Swedish film starts off both confusingly and also is very dull through the first half. I honestly felt compelled to just speed ahead to the next short on the DVD but stuck it out--and I am very glad I did, as it improved tremendously towards the finish.

The film starts with a scene reminiscent of the German "Final Solution", as you see hoards of naked people herded into a truck and the exhaust was piped back into the passenger cabin. During this, the leading character of this film does nothing and everyone is emotionless. Then in the following very brief separate vignettes, this man introduces himself, then his brother, his job, his apartment, etc. All this is incredibly dull. The sets are all gray, the characters almost zombie-like and this man's narration is listless. Only later when you see that this man is in fact going insane does any of this make sense.

Complex, Bergman-like and slow. This is a film many will find tedious but try seeing it all and then decide. It's far deeper and more interesting if you wait it out and see the entire tale unfold.

By the way, this film is part of the CINEMA 16: European Shorts DVD. On this DVD are 16 shorts. Most aren't great, though because it contains THE MAN WITHOUT A HEAD, COPY SHOP, RABBIT and WASP, it's an amazing DVD for lovers of short films and well worth buying.