Taglines: It’s time to take a stand.
Evil movie storyline. Erik Ponti is a sixteen-year-old boy who faces a lot of violence in his life. At school, he and his gang lend money to other students at high interest, resulting in a beating if they don’t pay the money back in time; several teachers maltreat students that don’t behave (in the book; in the movie it is not explained so widely). At home he lives with his sadistic stepfather and his mother.
When Erik and his gang are caught stealing records from stores, Erik gets the entire blame because of the loose kind of loyalty in the gang, resulting in his expulsion from school (again, in the book; in the movie he’s just shown fighting with other students). But circumstances allow him to matriculate into a private boarding school, Stjärnsberg, where he gets a new chance to continue his studies. Erik decides to try and break away from his earlier violent lifestyle.
But Stjärnsberg isn’t as nice and friendly as it seems initially. Erik has to face new kinds of violence in this school; from upperclassmen and members of the school council instead of teachers. At the school, a system called “kamratuppfostran” (“schoolmate upbringing”) is in place; a codename for a violent kind of bullying directed especially at nonconforming students, ostensibly to keep discipline and order in school. Erik, being the kind of person who won’t accept injustices, quickly becomes the main target.
In the movie, Ondskan (“the evil”) may be perceived as Erik himself (as bullying other students prior to his departure to Stjärnsberg), as his stepfather (who beats Erik on every occasion), as the indifference of the teachers at Stjärnsberg or as “kamratuppfostran”, which are represented by Otto Silverhielm and Gustaf Dahlén.
Evil (Swedish: Ondskan) is a 2003 Swedish drama film which was released to cinemas in Sweden on 26 September 2003, directed by Mikael Håfström, based on Jan Guillou’s semi-autobiographical novel with the same name from 1981, and starring Andreas Wilson, Henrik Lundström and Gustaf Skarsgård. The film is set in a private boarding school in the late-1950s with institutional violence as its theme. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 76th Academy Awards. It won three Swedish Guldbagge Awards including Best Film.
Evil (2003)
Directed by: Mikael Håfström
Starring: Andreas Wilson, Henrik Lundström, Linda Zilliacus, Gustaf Skarsgård, Jesper Salén, Filip Berg, Richard Danielsson, Martin Svane, Rustan Blomqvist, Peter Eggers
Screenplay by: Hans Gunnarsson, Mikael Håfström
Production Design by: Anna Asp
Cinematography by: Peter Mokrosinski
Film Editing by: Darek Hodor
Makeup Department: Karin Fahlén, Göran Lundström
Music by: Francis Shaw
Distributed by: TriStar Pictures
Release Date: September 20, 2003 (Sweden)
Views: 143
