Dag och natt (2004)

Director:

Simon Staho

Writers:

Peter Asmussen (writer)
Simon Staho (writer)

Release Date:

6 August 2004 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

DAY AND NIGHT is about people that love and want to be loved. It's the story of a father, his young son...

Plot Keywords:

Son | Mistress | Sister | Mother | Childhood Trauma

Awards:

2 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

Mikael Persbrandt	...	Thomas
Sam Kessel	...	Emil
Maria Bonnevie	...	Sarah
Michael Nyqvist	...	Jacob
Lena Endre	...	Anna
Hans Alfredson	...	Bilisten
Pernilla August	...	Eva
Fares Fares	...	Kristian
Marie Göranzon	...	Modern
Tuva Novotny	...	Desiré
Erland Josephson	...	Berättare (voice)

Also Known As:

Day and Night (International: English title) (USA) (festival title)
Dag og nat (Denmark)

Runtime:

95 min | Argentina:95 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)

Country:

Sweden | Denmark

Language:

Swedish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Gothenburg, Västra Götalands län, Sweden

Company:

Sonet Film AB

Trivia:

AIK (short for Allmänna Idrottsklubben), the soccer (football) team Kristian supports, is part of the Allsvenskan League (the top level league) in Sweden, as is Malmo, the other team he mentions.

Goofs:

Continuity: In several shots the water/steam on the car windows varies greatly between cuts.

Soundtrack:

First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

To be or not to be, that is his dilemma

It is a well-known fact that the better one lives, the higher one's living standards, the more suicides there are. Such that in extremely poor countries, suicide does not exist; instead these impoverished people die in civil wars and wide-spread famine. So it is with no surprise that this film in question is Swedish, dealing as it does in such a delicate theme as suicide.

Thomas sets out to visit and say good-bye to those around him - his mother, his wife, her lover, his young son, his sister, his lover........only to find his problems - never very clearly defined - are no worse than theirs.

Cleverly filmed, more than 80% of the film is made while he is driving his car, day and night, around Stockholm and its hinterland, the main characteristic of the film is the splendid characteriological interpretations of the actors and the impact of this rather dramatical denouncement: the message is clear. Where in the supposedly civilised and advanced world we crowd our lives with such benefits as a 'beautiful car', high spending-power, advanced technology, and so on, we are losing something which is far more important: the ability to communicate with those around us, the capacity to feel mutual sentiments, empathy with those persons who participate in our daily lives. All this has gone, ironically, with the arrival of so many different electronic means of contacting people all over the place. The world has gone mad: we cannot communicate with our loved ones, the people dearest to us. We communicate with a phone, a mobile (cellular), TV, radio, satellites, electronic mail and all the advantages of Internet, and other ingenious inventions, but face to face or side by side, those deepest human feelings like saying 'I love you', seem to have become outdated.

This is the case with Thomas; evidently he has lost contact with his mother, his wife, his sister, and even his lover is obviously disconnected from the ravages that Thomas is suffering. The end is horrendously predictable - and orchestrated - with terrifying thunder to aid and abett the outcome, such that there is no surprise. However, it is in the way the film is enacted and carried out that it scores - and scares. Those long hours mostly filmed at the steering-wheel express Thomas' dilemma, however incomprehensible it may be, which forces him into deciding whether to be or not to be.