Watch Denis Lavant in the trailer for John Skoog’s Redoubt

Sovereign is releasing John Skoog’s timely, absorbing Swedish drama Redoubt in select UK cinemas on 27th March 2026. The film received its UK Premiere at the BFI London Film Festival and will be showing at this year’s Glasgow Film Festival as part of the Country Focus strand.

Based on an extraordinary true story, Redoubt is the debut feature by artist and documentarian John Skoog (Ridge), building on his award-winning 2014 short film, with a script by Skoog and Kettil Kasang. Produced by the Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ruben Östlund (Triangle of Sadness) through Plattform Produktion, Redoubt stars celebrated veteran actor Denis Lavant (Holy Motors, Beau Travail, Mister Lonely) as Karl-Göran Persson, a Swedish farmhand, who, at the height of Cold War paranoia, attempted to turn his house into a ‘redoubt’ – a fortification – to protect his community should conflict break out.

In these uncertain times Skoog’s film hits hard, and has a poignant urgency, with its tale of a lone man scavenging anything he can find, in the face of indifference and ridicule, for what he believes will help his people – reminiscent of Michael Shannon digging a storm bunker in Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter; and the dogged determination of the hero of David Lynch’s The Straight Story. It’s a David vs Goliath situation, as the scene where Karl tries to single-handedly saw down an enormous tree illustrates.

The beautiful monochrome cinematography by Ita Zbroniec-Zajt (Woman on the Roof) – that recalls the forbidding bucolic imagery of Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon – contrasts shots of tolling bells and threshing machines with Karl’s attempt to shore up his home against a very modern, devastating threat. In a part that was written with him in mind, Levant fully inhabits this gentle, possibly misguided eccentric.

Synopsis: At the peak of the Cold War, farm worker Karl-Göran Persson starts fortifying his house. He gathers scrap-metal and casts it into the walls to build a fortress meant to protect him and his neighbours. His efforts are met with puzzlement by everyone but the children. As the construction progresses, so does a conflict with the people in the village.

Redoubt will be released in selected UK cinemas on 27 March 2026