Bröderna Lejonhjärta (1977)

Director:

Olle Hellbom

Writers:

Astrid Lindgren (novel)
Astrid Lindgren (screenplay)

Release Date:

23 September 1977 (Sweden)

Genre:

Adventure | Family | Fantasy

Tagline:

Från vår värld. Till sagornas och lägereldarnas värld.

Plot:

9-year old Karl Lejon, 'Skorpan' is suffering from tuberculosis and knows that he will die soon. But...

Plot Keywords:

Brother | Oppression | Dragon | Fire | Legend

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Staffan Götestam	...	Jonatan
Lars Söderdahl	...	Skorpan
Allan Edwall	...	Mattias
Gunn Wållgren	...	Sofia
Folke Hjort	...	Jossi
Per Oscarsson	...	Orvar
Tommy Johnson	...	Hubert
Jan Nygren	...	Veder
Micha Gabay	...	Kader
Georg Årlin	...	Tengil
Bertil Norström	...	Pjuke
Mats Andersson	...	Tengil's Soldier
Aksel Erhardtsen	...	Tengil's Soldier (as Aksel Erhardsen)
Ulf Håkan Jansson	...	Tengil's Soldier
Bodil Lindorff	...	Mother

Also Known As:

The Brothers Lionheart

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:LH | Finland:K-10 (re-rating) (1978) | Finland:K-12 (original rating) (1978) | Denmark:7 | Sweden:7 (re-rating) (1989) | Germany:6 | Norway:7 (1984) | Germany:o.Al. | Norway:11 | Sweden:11

Filming Locations:

Iceland

Company:

Artfilm

Trivia:

In the last fighting scene, the villagers run from Katla down the hill and pass a lot of junipers. The junipers are actually burned down already, before Katla's fire hit them. They were accidentally burned down in other takes before the "right" one.

Quotes:

Tengil's Man: I am here to take your horse.
Mattias: My, my horse? But you've already taken it, for crying out loud!
Tengil's Man: What?
Mattias: Can I help that you mess things up so that one blockhead does not know what the other is doing?

Movie Connections:

Featured in Ollebom (2002) (TV)

A brave, brave movie

I think this film, and of course mainly the book by Astrid Lindgren, is one of the bravest children's movie I have ever seen. I remember as a child, seeing this film on video, and feeling totally absorbed with it, as I had never, until then, seen a movie that dealt with such issues for a child my age.

Thoughts moving around life and death are issues that all kids are confronted with, and are issues which evokes questions in the minds of children. Many grown-ups are unable to handle questions from kids regarding death, in these cases I think this film is an exquisite piece of art.

But of course the film is not all about death, it is also a movie about bravery, go about and dare to do what frightens you in life, and of course the life altering condition of love, the love between two brothers.

It's interesting to hear how Lindgren imaginative work started for this book. She told a Swedish newspaper many years ago that it started out with her walking through a cemetery, which was something she liked to do, and seeing the grave of two brothers. Then a time after, that she attended a press conference for the casting of a film based on one of her books, after the press conference the leading actor (a seven-year old) walked down the stage and sat down in his older brothers knee and the older brother kissed him on the forehead, which was something she found very moving; by then she knew her next story was going to be about two brothers. The final imaginative episode was when she went with the train in northern Sweden, she told it as being a cold winter day, "a day when it was as beautiful as if it wasn't of this earth" by then she knew that the story was to involve the question of death, and a life after this.