The Conference (2023 film)

A team-building conference for municipal employees turns into a nightmare when elements of corruption begins to undermine and plague the retreat with a scorned man out to avenge the suicide of his father over a real estate scam entailing the construction of a non-utilitarian retail mall in a farming community.^[3][4]

• Katia Winter as Lina
• Adam Lundgren as Jonas
• Eva Melander as Eva
• Bahar Pars as Nadja
• Amed Bozan as Amir
• Maria Sid as Ingela
• Christoffer Nordenrot as Kaj
• Claes Hartelius [sv] as Torbjörn
• Cecilia Nilsson as Anette
• Lola Zackow [sv] as Jenny
• Jimmy Lindström [sv] as Karl
• Martin Lagos [sv] as Roger
• Marie Agerhäll [sv] as Cleo
• Robert Follin as Sotis
• Margareta Pettersson [sv] (voice actor)

The screenplay was co-written by the director Patrik Eklund [sv] and Thomas Moldestad [no], based on the 2021 novel Konferensen by Mats Strandberg. A Netflix original film, it was produced by Ina Sohlberg for SF Studios.^[1] The crew also featured Guldbagge-winning Tove Jansson, Eva von Bahr and Love Larson as make-up artists,^[5] Ingrid Sjögren [sv] as costume designer, and Tim King and Jonathan Ridings as executive producers alongside Mats Strandberg, with Jimm Garbis as associate producer.^[6]

Most of the film was shot in Stockholm and its surrounding areas.^[7] In fact, the Mälaren lake is thought to be one of the shooting locations of Conference.^[8]

The Conference premiered globally on Netflix in October 13, 2023.^[2][9] It released during pre-Halloween season.^[10]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 74% of 19 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.9/10.^[11]

Alexander Kardelo of MovieZine rated the film 4 out of 5 stars, deeming it a "brutally entertaining slasher comedy" and writing that "[it] offers its audience an intense nightmare experience that tickles the chest to death".^[12]

Karolina Fjellborg of Aftonbladet rated it 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "a festive, fresh breath of a slasher film, which combines some of the genre's most classic approaches with very Swedish characters, in a very Swedish context".^[13]

Mrinal Rajaram of Cinema Express rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, reckoning it is "based on an interesting premise" and "[brims] with potential" at first, but "loses a bit of itself in the slasher cliches", resulting in "the expectation [turning] soon to disappointment and [settling] eventually on boredom".^[14]

Emiliano Basile of EscribiendoCine rated it with 6 out of 10 points, stating that "Patrick Eklund makes a social satire-like slasher comedy that's shamelessly gore and a fun reflection on humans' incredible capacity to resist".^[15]