Sweden



RECENT TRENDS

Familiar genres such as the romantic comedy and the detective or secret agent drama also flourished after the film reform. Drawing especially large crowds in the 1980s and 1990s were a series of comedies by Lasse Åberg (b. 1940) about charter trips to various destinations and six heist films featuring the bumbling Jönsson League thieves. In the 1970s television, no longer solely a competitor, began co-producing films in return for broadcast rights. Contemporary features frequently reach a far larger audience on the air than in theatrical release; popular films from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s have likewise experienced a renaissance thanks to television.

Though Hollywood imports dominate the market, Swedish-produced features have premiered at a steady rate of from twenty to twenty-five a year in the last several decades. Since around 1980, women directors have gradually established themselves on an equal footing. Among the most prominent is Suzanne Osten (b. 1944), whose films cover a wide range: a sensitive portrait of her mother in Mamma ( Our Life Is Now , 1982); a revealing backstage account of an avant-garde opera production in Bröderna Mozart ( The Mozart Brothers , 1986); an investigation of the psychosocial causes of neo-Nazism in Tala! Det ärså mörkt ( Speak Up! It's So Dark , 1993); and a more lighthearted consideration of race and gender in Bara du mnd ( Nature's Revenge , 1983) and films about the nomadic Saami, while the "Mods" trilogy— Dom kallar oss mods ( They Call Us Misfits , 1968), Ett anständigt liv ( A Respectable Life , 1979), and Det sociala arvet ( The Social Contract , 1993)—provided a condensed social history of a lost urban generation.

Because children's culture has a high profile in Sweden, many well-crafted features are aimed at young audiences. Olle Hellbom's (1925–1982) popular adaptations of stories by Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002), including several Pippi Long stocking tales and the allegorical fantasy Bröderna Lejonhjärta ( The Brothers Lionheart , 1977), set the standard. Kay Pollak debuted with the children's film Elvis! Elvis! (1976), but Barnens ö ( Children's Island , 1980), featuring a pre-adolescent boy as the protagonist, is intended primarily for adults. Two similar films, Lasse Hallström's (b. 1946) bittersweet Mitt liv som hund ( My Life as a Dog , 1985) and Åke Sandgren's (b. 1955) less idyllic Kådisbellan ( The Slingshot , 1993), did well internationally; Hallström went on to a successful Hollywood career with such films as What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), The Cider House Rules (1999), and Chocolat (2000).

Especially since the 1990s, films about and for young adults have gained ground. In Fucking Åmål ( Show Me Love , 1998), which had considerable crossover appeal, Lukas Moodysson (b. 1969) encapsulates the boredom and frustration of small-town teenagers. Tillsammans ( Together , 2000) gives a similarly dead-on group portrayal of a 1970s commune where political and sexual issues become entwined. Subsequent Moodysson films explore darker subject matter: the recruitment of a young Russian girl to sex slavery in Sweden in Lilja 4-ever (2002) and the making of a pornographic film in the provocative Ett hål i mitt hjärta ( A Hole in My Heart 2004).

Since the 1950s Sweden has undergone a major demographic transformation from relative homogeneity to multicultural diversity. Various filmmakers have depicted the experience of immigrants and refugees adjusting to another culture, among them Johan Bergenstråhle in Jag heter Stelios ( Foreigners , 1972), Marianne Ahrne in Frihetens murar ( The Walls of Freedom , 1978), and Carlo Barsotti in Ett Paradis utan biljard ( A Paradise Without Billiards , 1991). The 1990s brought a reconsideration of matters pertaining to World War II and Jewish identity in, for instance, Kjell Grede's God afton, Herr Wallenberg ( Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg , 1990) and Susanne Bier's (b. 1960) Freud flyttar hemifrån ( Freud's Leaving Home , 1991). Around the year 2000, several directors with roots in the Middle East turned their attention to the next generation, especially young women struggling to negotiate between two cultural spheres: Josef Fares (b. 1977) in Jalla! Jalla! (2000), Reza Bagher (b. 1958) in Vingar av glas ( Wings of Glass , 2000), and Susan Taslimi in Hus i helvete ( All Hell Let Loose , 2002). Directors from non-Swedish backgrounds increasingly reflect their own cultural integration by widening their focus. The immigrant protagonist in Reza Parsa's Före stormen ( Before the Storm , 2000) confronts an ethical dilemma arising from the past, but his life in Sweden is otherwise unproblematic. Bagher's Populärmusik från Vittula ( Popular Music from Vittula , 2004) incorporates a quite different minority, Finnish speakers in the far north, while Fares's Kopps ( Cops , 2003) does not address immigrant issues at all.

SEE ALSO National Cinema

Cowie, Peter. Swedish Cinema, from "Ingeborg Holm" to "Fanny and Alexander . " Stockholm: The Swedish Institute, 1985.

Forslund, Bengt. Victor Sjöström, His Life and His Work . Translated by Peter Cowie. New York: New York Zoetrope,1988.

Fullerton, John, and Jan Olsson, eds. Nordic Explorations: Film Before 1930 . London: J. Libbey, 1999.

McIlroy, Brian. Sweden . World Cinema series, no. 2. London: Flicks Books, 1986.

Nestingen, Andrew, and Trevor G. Elkington, eds. National Cinema in a Global North: Nordic Cinema in Transition . Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2005.

Qvist, Per Olov, and Peter von Bagh. Guide to the Cinema of Sweden and Finland . Westport, CT, and London: Greenwood Press, 2000.

Soila, Tytti, Astrid Söderberg Widding, and Gunnar Iversen. Nordic National Cinemas . London and New York: Routledge,1998.

Wright, Rochelle. The Visible Wall: Jews and Other Ethnic Outsiders in Swedish Film . Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1998.

Rochelle Wright



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