Having missed this film when it came to the cinema I was delighted to pick it up on DVD recently. This 2008 Swedish film breathes new life and energy into a vampire genre emascualted and sanitised by the teen erotica Twilight frnachise.
Set in a wintry dystopian and bleak dormitory suburb of Stockholm (think Milton Keynes without the charisma) and against a backdrop of 1980s Sweden/Russia Cold War tension, Oskar is a lonely, shy and serious 12 year old boy whose life is made a daily hell by bullies. Alone outside one evening he meets Eli, a 12 year old girl who has moved in next door with her 'father' Hakan. "I'm 12 but I've been 12 for a long time" she tells him. Together they form an unbroken touching alliance.
The symbiotic relationship between the unspoken terror experienced by Oskar in the bullying scenes and the equally harrowing and the graphic violence of the blood letting vampire scenes is clear and throughout the film our natural human sympathy for the helpless Oskar is matched by that for the vulnerable Eli. The tension of the swimming pool climax is a Hitchcockian masterpiece.
This is a visually poetic and wonderfully crafted story of hope and love against adversity.
I commend this film.
No comments:
Post a Comment