Directed by Bo Widerberg • 1963 • Sweden
Starring Tommy Berggren, Keve Hjelm, Emy Storm
A period piece that forgoes nostalgia in favor of a stark examination of working-class struggle, Bo Widerberg’s second feature unfolds in 1936 in the director’s hometown of Malmö. It’s there, in the poor district of Raven’s End, that young Anders (Widerberg’s regular collaborator Tommy Berggren) chases his dream of becoming a writer while growing increasingly disillusioned with the dead-end world that surrounds him: an alcoholic father, a toiling mother, and the ominous specter of Nazism. Delivering a bracing jolt of kitchen-sink realism to Swedish cinema, Widerberg paints an unsparing portrait of youthful idealism bumping up against economic despair.
Up Next in Bo Widerberg’s New Swedish Cinema
-
Ådalen 31
Directed by Bo Widerberg • 1969 • Sweden
Starring Peter Schildt, Kerstin Tidelius, Roland HedlundOne of Bo Widerberg’s most explicitly political works imbues the true story of a 1931 labor strike with a powerful contemporary resonance. In the industrial district of Ådalen, in the north of Swede...
-
The Boy and the Kite
Directed by Bo Widerberg • 1962 • Sweden
Made in 1962 in Malmö, Sweden, THE BOY AND THE KITE (Pojken och draken) is Bo Widerberg’s first short film. Based on Widerberg’s script, it was codirected and shot by filmmaker Jan Troell on a 16 mm Paillard camera.
-
Jörgen Persson on Bo Widerberg
In this interview, conducted in 2021, cinematographer Jörgen Persson discusses director Bo Widerberg and working with him on ELVIRA MADIGAN and ÅDALEN 31.
