Stockholm Stories (2013) is a great comedy and one of the best Swedish films of many years, and I usually don't like modern Swedish films.
The film is based on a collection of short stories written by actor Jonas Karlsson, and it is not too much to say that it is a Swedish version of Short Cuts (1993). Stockholm in the film is inhabited by a lot of entangled individuals, and they are all connected to each other to some extent.
There was a stodgy government secretary who saw his name on an envelope in a car one day. He dwells on the mysterious event and begins to investigate whose car it was. He was then fascinated (to be precise) with the woman who wrote the envelope, and it was a woman who was even less social and more bizarre. She had a senseless argument with a comedian who stole her cooked food.
Nearby, we saw a stuttering young man arguing with a conservative father who was trying to control his life, who also wanted to meddle in his affairs with the girl he met. And the girl happened to be the lover of a politician, the sister of a naïve young writer who wanted to step out of his father's shadow.
There's a lot of emotion in Stockholm Story, and fortunately everyone's story is intertwined at the end, and while that's not the best ending for the characters, at least we can see it in a traditional screenwriting approach. I've always thought there were more good ways to end a film than a reunion, and sometimes a little bit of misfortune was a joy from its own distorted point of view.
Director Karin Fahlén and screenwriter Erik Ahrnbom carefully eschewed the clichéd plot —the mere fact that the naïve writer was not a very talented person in himself was a brilliant idea, because it might be more real than a writer who was as talented as his deceased father.
Now he is just a man of pretentiousness who fantasizes about success at all costs. Cecilia Frode, who plays Jessica, creates a character she has barely seen, who is completely out of touch with the society around her, dressed in fancy costumes, and always able to stir up disputes because she can't let go of any small things.
Another interesting role was Peter Carlberg, who played the conservative father. His eyes were so hollow (imagine the shark's eyes) so emotionally disturbing that I was disgusted at first. This is in stark contrast to Pia Halvorsen, who plays his wife, a bittersweet person, a humorous sad soul who walks a tightrope between comedy and deep conflict.
But the real star here is Karin Fahlén, who tells the story with a steady approach and a perfect pace. She deliberately maintains a visual distance from her characters—as if secretly spying on them from a distance, and gradually getting closer to them as the story progresses.
She shows us the unknown side of Stockholm, the houses and landscapes that are different from the typical yellow picture, and the iconic buildings in the center. This is a more authentic view of the south of Stockholm than ever before, not the sights seen in countless films shot here.
The film ends warmly, with the poet scattering his manuscripts across the city, carrying explosives packs and demanding a ten-minute government blackout.
This article is originally produced by the translation team of The Lost Shadow Network
Translation: Stalker
By Fred Anderson