Kim Novak badade aldrig i Genesarets sjö

Kim Novak badade aldrig i Genesarets sjö
Directed by; Martin Asphaug, Sweden, 2005
Drama / Thriller, 95min Distributed by SF

Story:
On his way back from his childhood friends funeral, Erik thinks back to a summer long long ago when his and Edmund's lives where changed forever.

Me: A rather good movie considering it's Swedish and relatively new. Using a wraparound to build suspense placed in modern times we find adult Erik [Johan H:son Kjellberg] making a trip into his memory and that disturbing summer of 1962 when he, [Anton Lundqvist as young Erik] and Edmund [Jesper Adefelt] spent a summer at Erik's family house, called Genesaret, of the title. Erik's mother is dying of cancer and it's his fathers work at the locale jail house together with Edmunds father that has put the two boys together. To keep a supervising eye on the boys Erik's older brother Henry [Jonas Karlsson] who plans to write the great novel, lives in the house with them. But when Henry starts dating Ewa Klaudius [Helena af Sandeberg], fiancé of regional sports star Berra Abertsson [Anders Berg], the events that lead up to that "horrifying day" start to build up. The fact that Berra is a maniac who Erik and Edmund watch violently beat up a guy for staring at Ewa, added to the fact that Ewa is sneaking around with Erik's brother, the surprise visit of Berra asking about Erik's brother, the love all three boys, Erik, Edmund and Henry, have for Ewa, and the sudden and apparent murder of Berra add up to a rather interesting narrative. With the older brothers maturity, creative frustration and the two young guys acceptance of newly found teen sexuality it's a sort of coming of age movie with a murder mystery interwoven. The scene where the two lads have a wank as they watch Henry having it off with Ewa is bound to become a classic. Daring, sweet and foremost funny. Although it's quite easy to predict where the story is going, I was honestly surprised by this movie. I enjoyed it, and even though I thought I had it all planned out, there is no real blueprint presented to who did what, and it leaves a rather open ending. Not revolutionary, but interesting. If you want to keep up to date with what's being made in Sweden these days, then this is one of the better examples.

Image:
Widescreen 2.30:1 Anamorphic. Good print and great colourschemes.
Subtitles in Danish, Norweigan and Swedish

Audio:
Swedish Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0

Extras:
There is a strange idea (rumour) that the major studios in Sweden think that consumers of domestic DVD's don't want loads of extras, so unfortunately there aren't any