“It’s rare to hear journalists and critics vocally turn against a film at the Berlin International Film Festival,” Indiewire‘s Eugene Hernandez wrote a little while ago. “Catcalls and hisses, while more common in Cannes, are actually rather rare on the international festival circuit. So, it came as a bit of a surprise to hear a loud ‘boo,’ then whistles, followed by tepid applause and another ‘boo’ this afternoon at the end of Lukas Moodysson‘s Mammoth.”

Fascinating lead graph, but there’s no payoff. All Hernandez says is that the ending is what offended. Okay, but that’s it? Was it a failure to satisfyingly conclude, or an ending that contained a plot turn that people found deeply offensive? Did costars Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Willams drop trou and moon the camera? Surely there must b a way to convey what ticked people off without divulging the particulars.

“After the showing, the debate began and filmmaker Moodysson admitted that he’s been surprised by audience reactions to his new movie.”

Hernandez describes Mammoth as “an ambitious English-language story shot on three continents. Bernal and Williams portray an upwardy mobile New York City couple with a young daughter who is cared for by a Filipina maid. Desperate to return to the Phillipines, the noble nanny cooks, cleans and raises the American girl in order to make enough money to some day return to her own kids back home.”

Okay, yeah….and?