Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Evil

A few months ago I received an alarming email from Amazon informing me that Evil has been dispatched. I hadn't a clue what they were talking about until, two days later, a DVD arrived of a Swedish film called Ondskan, translated into English as Evil. It was brilliant and the next day I recommended it to a notoriously curmudgeonly colleague at work, almost certain that he'd find something wrong with the film. He loved it too.

Set around fifty years ago in an exclusive Swedish boarding school, Ondskan is a savage indictment of the type of institutionalised bullying that is bizarrely regarded as character building. The lead actor - Andreas Wilson - is incredibly charismatic and with the 50s setting the result looks like a cross between Tom Brown's Schooldays and Rebel Without a Cause. Sort of.


But Ondskan isn't some public school romp with Nordic Flashmans. This is a highly intelligent and compelling film about morality and the lead character's refusal to submit to the injustices of others will have you hooked. I promise.

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