In March 2016, Ruben Östlund's mom asked him to document a flash mob she was going to participate in. The flash mob was organized by the politically independent action group "No to NATO" at the shopping center Nordstan, Gothenburg. Ruben Östlund has said that he finds the commitment to "No to NATO" admirable and important. Especially when noticing the absence of criticism and debate in Swedish media about the neutrality of Sweden and the so-called Host Nation Support Agreement, which was to be approved by the Swedish parliament in April 2016 and come into effect on July 1 the same year, thereby significantly expanding Sweden's NATO cooperation, an opening for full membership in "the increasingly divided military alliance", and in the worst case, the placement of nuclear weapons in Sweden.