In the Swedish city of Lethe, people from different walks of life take part in a series of short, deadpan vignettes that rush past. Some are just seconds long, none longer than a couple of minutes. A young woman remembers a fantasy honeymoon with a rock guitarist. A man awakes from a dream about bomber planes. A businessman boasts about success while being robbed by a pickpocket, and so on. The absurdist collection is accompanied by Dixieland jazz and similar music.

In the Swedish city of Lethe, people from different walks of life take part in a series of short, deadpan vignettes that rush past. Some are just seconds long, none longer than a couple of minutes. A young woman remembers a fantasy honeymoon with a rock guitarist. A man awakes from a dream about bomber planes. A businessman boasts about success while being robbed by a pickpocket, and so on. The absurdist collection is accompanied by Dixieland jazz and similar music.

The puppy love of two teenagers is set against a backdrop of adults struggling with their own lives. As a couple in love, they don't care about anything but themselves and seem totally unaware about everything that surrounds them.

As the AIDS epidemic was spreading in 1987, the Swedish government commissioned Roy Andersson to make an educational film about the disease. In these twenty or so monotone scenes, Andersson criticizes the medical community for its dehumanizing and racist tendencies when researching HIV and AIDS.

A monumental traffic jam serves as the backdrop for the lives of the inhabitants of a Swedish city.

A monumental traffic jam serves as the backdrop for the lives of the inhabitants of a Swedish city.

The narrative portrays a plain man who guides the viewer through his life in a bleakly stylised world.

In a minor town the morose manager is primarily responsible for the bad atmosphere of a restaurant. But central for the plot are three persons: a male waiter who is never named (here called W), the female waiter Anna, and "the count", a self-invented nickname by a man cleaning plates. The count is skilled in making others do what he wants. Half a dozen of the personnel assist in a poorly planned and failed attempt to liberate a man whom the police move from one arrest to another. The event involves stealing a motorcycle and threatening policemen with a gun. Anna strongly tries to make contact with W. Finally it turns out that she need his help to break her sexual relation to the count, a relation that from her part is not motivated by positive feelings. W rejects her attempts. And then Anna has suddenly gone. She has got a pleasant job in another town. And then W's feelings awaken.

In a minor town the morose manager is primarily responsible for the bad atmosphere of a restaurant. But central for the plot are three persons: a male waiter who is never named (here called W), the female waiter Anna, and "the count", a self-invented nickname by a man cleaning plates. The count is skilled in making others do what he wants. Half a dozen of the personnel assist in a poorly planned and failed attempt to liberate a man whom the police move from one arrest to another. The event involves stealing a motorcycle and threatening policemen with a gun. Anna strongly tries to make contact with W. Finally it turns out that she need his help to break her sexual relation to the count, a relation that from her part is not motivated by positive feelings. W rejects her attempts. And then Anna has suddenly gone. She has got a pleasant job in another town. And then W's feelings awaken.

In a minor town the morose manager is primarily responsible for the bad atmosphere of a restaurant. But central for the plot are three persons: a male waiter who is never named (here called W), the female waiter Anna, and "the count", a self-invented nickname by a man cleaning plates. The count is skilled in making others do what he wants. Half a dozen of the personnel assist in a poorly planned and failed attempt to liberate a man whom the police move from one arrest to another. The event involves stealing a motorcycle and threatening policemen with a gun. Anna strongly tries to make contact with W. Finally it turns out that she need his help to break her sexual relation to the count, a relation that from her part is not motivated by positive feelings. W rejects her attempts. And then Anna has suddenly gone. She has got a pleasant job in another town. And then W's feelings awaken.