Here are tips for powerful depictions of loneliness that you can identify with:
“The Wackness” (2008), a film directed by Jonathan Levine
In sweltering New York in the 1990s, where everyone else has gone on vacation, lone wolf Luke (Josh Peck) works as a summer drug dealer. He sells weed to his psychiatrist (Ben Kingsley) in exchange for therapy and drifts around frustrated until he falls in love with the psychiatrist's stepdaughter Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby).
“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (2019), a film directed by Céline Sciamma
Late 18th-century France. Artist Marianne (Noémie Merlant) spends a few summer weeks on an isolated island where she is to paint a portrait of the aristocrat Héloïse (Adèle Haenel). Their shared loneliness stems from a lack of freedom in a male-dominated world, but the encounter develops into a passionate lesbian love story.
"The Wall", a novel by Marlen Haushofer, is available in a new edition
In Haushofer's dystopia from 1963, we meet the loneliest woman in the world. During a holiday in the Austrian Alps, she wakes up one morning and finds herself separated from the outside world by an impenetrable wall. Outside, all the other people have died. But despite the darkness, there is also hope hidden here, like in a handful of sun-warmed raspberries.
Ingela Ihrman, art exhibition "Vendela" at Vandalorum (until 13/9)
Ihrman's art often contains an existential loneliness. Here, the small person is pitted against the great outdoors. In the recently concluded exhibition “Night's Plays” at Bonniers Konsthall, this took the form of everything from gigantic giant bear locomotives to helicopter-sized moths. Some of these works can now be seen at Vandalorum in Småland.
“Alone”, monologue at Strindberg's intimate theater (new premiere this fall)
When theater director Anna Pettersson makes her free version of August Strindberg's flaneur novella "Alone", the older and bitter protagonist, who has turned his back on his old friends, becomes a prepper who goes into the forest.
Thérèse Brunnander plays the stiff city bard, a mole alone among menacing shadows and rustling bushes.
"Klara and the Sun", novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, also audiobook (film this fall)
Contemporary science fiction about the AI robot Klara, whose mission is to be an artificial friend to a lonely and sick teenager. Unlike the achievement-oriented parent generation, Klara, despite her limitations, can explain to the genetically modified youth what empathy and love are.
Ishiguro himself said that he wanted to convey faith in the future and optimism with his novel.
"Walk on by", song by and with El Perro del Mar (Sarah Assbring)
Melancholic, upbeat song about loneliness as your best friend, about keeping your head up and just keeping going.
"Oslo, 31 August" (2011), a film directed by Joachim Trier
Before “Sentimental Value” and “The Worst Person in the World,” the Norwegian director made a melancholic drama inspired by Louis Malle's “Take My Life” (1963). Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie) has been doing drugs while his peers have had careers and families. Now he tries to endure the last day of summer sober.
