At 10pm every evening in the student campus buildings of Flogsta in the Swedish city of Uppsala, a most unusual tradition occurs: hundreds of residents open their windows and release a mass scream into the ether – just as has happened each and every day since the 1970’s.

Johan Palmgren’s documentary opens with this most unsettling event, immediately piquing the interest, but the great thing is that he does not limit the film to the how’s and why’s of the scream and instead turns his camera to a wider view of a diverse community which has this as its norm. Through the characters of Flogsta, Palmgren paints a rich picture of a colorful community, from young students through to a set of aging swing musicians, and engages us in stories of stolen food, unrequited love, frying pan maintenance, thin walls, and suicide. The result is surprisingly immersive, drawing the viewer into each individual situation and creating a sense of a place where the nightly scream fits perfectly with the world within which it occurs.

The film benefits from how Palmgren puts the viewer into the community. Some of this is how well he picks and captures his subjects, but the technical aspects are key. It may not be immediately obvious from online viewing, but the film was shot in 3D on RED. According to Palmgren, he had long wanted to make a 3D film, but “not in the glossy, chic environment one mostly see in 3D. The scruffy corridors of Flogsta turned out to be the perfect place for a really dark 3D film.” For sure the film moves around the corridors, reminiscent of Kubrick’s The Shining – a feeling added to by the echoing presence of the 1950’s swing music coming from the basement.

While the 3D cinematography deserves mention, a lot of credit for this immersive feel belongs with the sound team. In each scene we hear overlapping noises from throughout the building, seamlessly merged into the viewer’s environment. The effect is to complete a fully realized sense of place and community – and when we return to the roar of the title again, we feel we understand and appreciate it much more than we did in that first opening moment.

This is the second documentary we have featured from Palmgren; the first being Grandpa and Me and a Helicopter to Heaven, co-directed with long-time creative partner Åsa Blanck. He has been an active documentarian and filmmaker for over 15 years – we look forward to catching up on more of that back catalogue.