Touching story about working class kids and their complexity

Review of Seppan (1986) movie, by Stefan Stenudd

This is a wonderful movie, the first by director Agneta Fagerstrom-Olsson, dealing a lot with her own childhood experiences. It follows mainly working-class kids on the verge of puberty, as they try to make their big souls fit into a rather limited world.

Usually, when working-class is portrayed in movies, they are simplified, as if belonging to a lesser race than those of the other classes. Not so here. The dreams, the longings of all human beings, are given room here, expressed through the minds and actions of kids from very simple circumstances.

The director, who also wrote the script, has an ability to get under the skin of the characters, make them come alive to an extent rare on cinema (well, this production was for TV). What makes the deepest impression on me, is that she somehow captures the most fragile essence of the characters, that which makes them real, really real.

Stefan Stenudd
11 January 2003