Tomas (Johannes Bah Kuhnke) and his attractive wife Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli), with their two children, Vera and Harry (real siblings Clara and Vincent Wettergren), are taking a ski vacation. In a charming introductory scene, we see them on the slopes being photographed by an entrepreneur who snaps shots of tourists.

The surroundings are gorgeous, with all the trappings of a fancy mountain resort. The family is seen sitting on a terrace having lunch when suddenly there is an avalanche moving frighteningly toward them. They aren’t buried, but the spray of the snow temporarily covers them and terrace. In the menace of the moment Tomas instinctively bolts to his own safety, ignoring the safety of his wife and children. It is a moment that cannot be forgotten. Can it ever be forgiven?

What ensues is for you to see for yourself and make your own judgment, and even perhaps to think of how you would react in a similar situation. How does the human urge for survival govern our behavior?

We not only see the effect of what has happened on Tomas and his family, but on friends of theirs, a man separated from his wife with his 20-year-old girlfriend, and on Ebba’s attitude toward a woman at the lodge who, although married, talks about her freedom in having other relationships, including with a stranger she has just met at the resort. We see the effect of what has occurred on the children of Tomas and Ebba. The acting by all is superbly convincing enabling us to feel we know the characters well.

“Force Majeure” skillfully moves step by step into the confrontations, testing for loyalty and results, topped with an ending of passengers who have abandoned a bus with an incompetent driver and are walking down a snow-covered road in a sequence that might make you think of a Buñuel film.

This is a drama that not only thoroughly absorbs one but can linger to make you think about it long afterward. One can take it strictly on its immediate terms, or regard it more symbolically as a questioning of how we regard the male as the dominant head of a family, or even perhaps as a metaphor for a threat to societal structure in the face of what nature can bring. The possibilities are intriguing.