Behind Blue Skies (2010)

Coming of age film that takes place in the Swedish archipelago during 70s about young Martin (Bill Skarsgård) who gets a summer job working at a hotel. The hotel manager Gösta (Peter Dalle)... See full summary »

Director:

Hannes Holm

Writer:

Hannes Holm

Stars:

Bill Skarsgård, Peter Dalle, Josefin Ljungman

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bill Skarsgård	...	Martin
Peter Dalle	...	Gösta
Josefin Ljungman	...	Jenny
Amanda Ooms	...	Siv
Björn Kjellman	...	Nils
Adam Pålsson	...	Micke
Rasmus Troedsson	...	Ulf
Annika Olsson	...	Ann-Britt
Peter Engman	...	Kenta
Gustave Lund	...	Nalle
Erik Johansson	...	Jonte
Stig Engström	...	Fritz
Elin Klinga	...	Marketta
Leif Andrée	...	Stig
Ola Wahlström	...	Polistekniker

Storyline

Coming of age film that takes place in the Swedish archipelago during 70s about young Martin (Bill Skarsgård) who gets a summer job working at a hotel. The hotel manager Gösta (Peter Dalle) takes a liking to young Martin, takes him around while doing some very shady business deals outside of his hotel manager job.

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Plot Keywords:

fellatio | year 1975 | woman undresses | homosexual kiss | 1970s | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Did You Know?

Trivia

While the film mainly takes place in 1975, the title song "Himlen är oskyldigt blå" by Ted Gärdestad wasn't released until 1993, featuring newly recorded Swedish vocals to the backing track of his 1978 song "Blue Virgin Isles". The other pop songs are from 1975 and before, except "Young Love" by Motoboy which is played during the end credits.

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Goofs

When Martin is in the car with the bad guys and been offered a cigarette, a package "John Silver" appears. There have been a number of changes since 1975 and that one in the scene is from around year 2000.

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Connections

References Kojak (1973)

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Soundtracks

Oh vilken härlig da'
Written by Ted Gärdestad / Kenneth Gärdestad
Universal Music Publishing AB
Performed by Ted Gärdestad
(P) 1973 Universal Music AB

User Reviews

Well made coming of age story

Short summary of the film: Martin (played by Bill Skarsgård), a young man is growing up in Sweden during 1970's. His family life is far from happy because of his fathers(Björn Kjellman) drinking problem. On the outside his father is a well respected civil servant but on the inside he's , prone to manic depression, and abusive husband as well as an neglecting father.

Martins mother(Amanda Ooms) is weak, cannot stand up against her husband and can only watch as the family slowly unravels in front of her eyes. Martin wants run away and finally gets the chance when one of his friends gets him a summer job(at a hotel) out in the Swedish archipelago outside of Stockholm.

Martin quickly befriends Gösta(Peter Dalle)the hotel owner who becomes a father figure for Martin, teaches him about life etc. But Gösta is in involved in some very dangerous yet lucrative, highly dangerous business on the side....

Rarely do Swedish cinema become this well made, as this crime drama/coming of age story. This film is also loosely based on real life crime story "The Sandhamn gang" that was brought down by the police in the 1970's.

The biggest surprise is the strong direction, acting and high production values regarding set designs, clothes music etc. Director Hannes Holm usually makes very mainstream Swedish rom coms, comedy dramas, that hasn't made much impact on me but this is clearly(so far at least)his best film.

Bill Skarsgård is the son of famous Swedish Stellan Skarsgård (his two other acting sons are Alexander Skarsgård, Gustaf Skarsgård)does a pretty good job but most impressive is the sourrounding cast; Peter Dalle is very good(winner Goldbug award best male actor for this role), Björn Kjellman as the alcoholic father etc.

The only criticism one can say is that screenplay has some flaws, the story sometimes predictable, certain characters not that interesting but overall a very good Swedish film, easily compared to international productions such as: Lords of Dogtown (2005),A Bronx Tale (1993)etc.

Biggest surprise..? The dark, complex depiction of Swedish society during 1970s, were no one seems innocent. Please check up on Ted Gärdestads music on youtube, It'll be worth it, I promise.

Details

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Release Date:

15 October 2010 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

Behind Blue Skies

Filming Locations:

Cabaret Royal, Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,921,178

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fladen Film, Sveriges Television (SVT), Nordisk Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Color:

Color