The film is an exploration of the "grandeur of existence",[3] centered on the lives of a group of individuals, such as an overweight woman, a disgruntled psychiatrist, a heartbroken groupie, a carpenter, a business consultant, and a school teacher with emotional problems and her rug-selling husband.

The cast is mostly non-professional, and alienating techniques are employed such as presenting the characters in grim make-up and having them talk directly to camera.

It is the second film in a trilogy, preceded by Songs from the Second Floor (2000) and followed by A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014).

All the stories show the essential humanity of the characters and address themes of life, existence and happiness.

The film starts with a monologue which ends up being sung to Dixieland jazz music being played by lone musicians, each in a different room in a different part of the city.

This bookends with the opening scene where a man wakes up and tells the audience that he had a nightmare about bombers coming.

[7] Eventually, with eighteen organizations from six different countries involved in financing the production, the total budget amounted to slightly over five million euros.

Amateurs were preferred to professionals because of the greater selection and the problem of asking renowned actors to take small parts.

[9] A melody featured on several occasions is "En liten vit kanin", in English "A Little White Rabbit", a song that was recorded by Edvard Persson in the 1930s and became very popular in Sweden.

[9] Another song used is the religious "Jag har hört om en stad ovan molnen", literally "I Have Heard of a City above the Clouds", originally based on a Russian folk melody and often played at funerals in Sweden.

This song was originally planned to be used during the ending sequence, but eventually Andersson decided to use a more energizing jazz tune instead: "I want the audience to leave the theater with a little more lust for opposition.

[19] Carl-Johan Malmberg at Svenska Dagbladet called Andersson "the black diamond of comedy in Swedish film life."

The site's critical consensus reads: "Composed of humorous sketches of human behavior, Roy Andersson's You, the Living is an eccentric but highly entertaining and unforgettable work.

"[24] Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu listed the film in his top ten favorites for the 2022 Sight and Sound poll.