Koko-di Koko-da is a 2019 Swedish-Danish horror fantasy about a couple who tries to reconnect on a camping trip but soon finds themselves stuck in a time loop with an odd entourage attacking them.
Fantasia Festival 2019: Happy little family Elin (Ylva Gallon), Tobias (Leif Edlund) – who are still very much in love – and their young daughter, contracting food poisoning with some rather traumatic consequences. Three years later, the couple are still dealing with their damaging after effects, so decide to go on a camping trip, hoping to reconnect. However, they end up in a nightmare instead, where three strange people, including a leader (Peter Belli), a giant (Morad Baloo Khatchadorian), and a creepy girl come to humiliate and eventually kill them. But Tobias suddenly wakes up, discovering they are in a bizarre time loop and so does what he can each time to gain the upper hand and stop their tragic deaths.
Koko-di Koko-da is weird. In its five or so loops that the story goes through, it becomes a curious trap to say the least. If it wasn’t for the opening and closing sequences, mostly because trying to link together why this particular group of baddies is haunting this couple is not so easy to understand, this would be almost completely incomprehensible. Symbolism is naturally the order of the day and it all seems to play in relation to their daughter (avoiding spoilers). Every stage of these replays is a part of some emotional development and whether the audience connects to this at all will be key to how much the film is appreciated. It can be fairly incredibly vague, especially when not only do these murderous trio show up but also white cats and attack dogs. It strips away some the seriousness it seems trying to maintain but does at least layer in more strangeness.
Most of Koko-di Koko-da‘s story revolves around the Tobias, the father and husband, making his decisions in response to each previous loop. Edlund is good, developing Tobias from the first loop where he is mostly pathetic and weak, turning selfish, and then finally finding the courage he needs. Gallon gives Elin some weight though is mostly reactive to Tobias, questioning his urgency, her loops perhaps symbolizing greater pain, the two tested as the torment of it all causing them to fall further from each other.
Koko-di Koko-da should get people talking. By its nature, it feel repetitive, however, there are some good moments that are worth closer attention. One of them is the repeating cheery Koko-di Koko-da song and another is a segment of a paper-cut bunny family projected on a screen, which is a childlike way to present a story that works to draw some parallels with reality.
By no measure is Koko-di Koko-da for everyone. It’s a short-ish movie but is pretty dense, perhaps a bit too ambitious for its own good. Audiences will mostly likely be divided by a large chasm. I’m on the fence and so will stick somewhere in the middle.