Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
FEEL-BAD SWEDISH FILMS
The Swedish film industry is active and varied, but most people associate it with the god-
father of gloom, Ingmar Bergman. Many filmmakers have followed in his grim footsteps:
Songs from the Second Floor(Roy Andersson; 2000) A post-apocalyptic urban night-
mare in surreal slow motion; it's not for everyone.
Lilya 4-Ever(Lukas Moodysson; 2002) A grim tale of human trafficking.
Ondskan(Evil; Mikael Håfström; 2003) Violence at a boys' boarding school.
Zozo(Josef Fares; 2005) A Lebanese orphan makes his way to Sweden alone, then has
culture shock.
Darling(Johan Kling; 2007) Harsh economic realities bring together a shallow, privileged
party girl and a sweet old man in an unlikely friendship.
Let the Right One In(Tomas Alfredson; 2008) An excellent, stylish, restrained take on the
horror-film genre that gets at what it's like to be a lonely preteen in a cold, hostile world.
Swedish Cinema
Sweden led the way in the silent-film era of the 1920s, with such masterpieces as
Körkar-
len
(The Phantom Carriage), adapted from a novel by Selma Lagerlöf and directed by
Mauritz Stiller. In 1967 came Vilgot Sjöman's notorious
I Am Curious (Yellow),
a subtly
hilarious socio-political film that got more attention outside Sweden for its X rating than
for its sharp commentary (and its in-jokes about the king, which foreign audiences, unsur-
prisingly, failed to get).
With a few exceptions, though, one man has largely defined modern Swedish cinema to
the outside world: Ingmar Bergman. With deeply contemplative films such as
The Seventh
Seal, Through a Glass Darkly
and
Persona,
the beret-topped director explored human ali-
enation, the absence of god, the meaning of life, the certainty of death and other light-
hearted themes. Love him or don't, it's basically impossible to discuss or think about
Swedish cinema without considering Bergman and his influence.
More recently, the Swedish towns of Trollhättan and Ystad have become film-making
centres, the former drawing the likes of wunderkind director Lukas Moodysson, whose
Lilya 4-Ever
,
Show Me Love
and
Tillsammans
have all been both popular and critical hits.
Moodysson went through a dark phase for a few years but has found himself back on the
international-cinema radar with his newest film, 2014's
We Are the Best!
, a thrilling and
heartwarming movie about three high-school girls in 1980s Stockholm who form a punk
