Undoubtedly "Sökarna" is a Swedish classic. For all it's awful quality it influenced a whole genre of Swedish film. Loads of movies like this one were made, with actors who try hard and fail miserably and with enthusiastic film-makers that have no grasp of the art of film-making but won't let that stop them.
"Sökarna" tells the story of a troubled young man named Jon who keeps getting into fights and slips further and further into a life of crime. Since this is a Swedish movie, all ends in the darkest tragedy. But if you have seen Swedish social-realism before you already knew that.
The acting is generally awful. The only actor really getting away with it is the underestimated Torsten Flinck, who was actually a good actor before all the coke and alcohol burned his brain away. Here he's truly disgusting as the man who fosters Jon in prison to become a real hardcore criminal. If Flinck is the top when it comes to acting, P-G Hylén most certainly is the bottom. Why it would be "cool" to dress up in Lederhosen and grind yourself with raw meat, just to show what a bad-ass you are, is beyond me. Although i must admit it makes for one of the most memorable scenes in a Swedish movie yet, on par with Max Von Sydow playing chess against Death in "The Seventh Seal".
When all is said and done "Sökarna" is highly entertaining. It's just so awful that you can't help liking it at least a little bit. The lack of real actors, the lack of funding (represented nicely by the fact that the police cars in this movie are just black cars with a "P" painted on the side) and the complete lack of directorial talent from Daniel Fridell. It's sort of an Ed Wood of Swedish teenage films. Awful but endearing.
I rate it 5/10 for originality, 1/10 for quality and 10/10 for early 90's nostalgia.
