Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness won the Palm d’Or at Cannes this year and had its Australian premiere in the Sydney Film Festival within weeks of doing so.

More recently came the news that its co-star, South African actor Charlbi Dean, had died in a New York hospital, aged 32. A sad side note indeed. Her performance in this energetic satire on contemporary capitalism and Europe’s uber-rich is one of its highlights.

Triangle of Sadness. Photo © Fredrik Wenzel/Platform Produktion

Östlund (Force Majeure, The Square) opens the film with a prelude of sorts, a casting call for male models, one of whom is Carl (Harris Dickinson). He’s got the looks but can he “relax his triangle of sadness?” asks a casting director, referring to the worry lines between his eyebrows.

Perhaps he couldn’t, because Carl didn’t get the gig. Instead, he joins his model-influencer girlfriend Yaya (Dean) for a free cruise on a $250 million superyacht. All they have to do is look pretty and endlessly feed their Insta accounts.

Also on board are a selection of Europe’s richest and most reprehensible, among them an elderly British couple who have made...