Provocative, but unlikely

Review of VD / CEO (1988) movie, by Stefan Stenudd

Stig Larsson is sort of an enfant terrible in Swedish literature, gifted at accomplishing the infernal. In this TV movie, he creates a sort of nightmare, by having a company CEO surprise visit one of his employees, and using his authority to terrorize his host.

Larsson is able to make the drama very upsetting, not to say revolting, exposing the darkest sides of human capacity or incapacity.

Yet, I had great troubles accepting the plot, since I found no reason to believe that a regular employee, a 'simple worker', would take that bullying from a boss high up in the hierarchy - it would have been so much more believable, if it was a junior executive harassed, somebody who needed to comply, because of his own ambitions with the company. Regular workers rarely have enough to hope for in a company, that they would suffer something of this nature.

Still, it's an impressive flood of emotions, which Larsson is able to evoke. He makes the audience frustrated, angry, vindictive, and I guess that's exactly what he wanted.

Stefan Stenudd
13 January 2003