Balls (2010)

A heartwarming tale about a beloved father who is trying to cope with cultural clashes, loss and the search for love in average Swedish society.

Director:

Josef Fares

Writers:

Josef Fares (manuscript), Torkel Petersson (manuscript)

Stars:

Jan Fares, Torkel Petersson, Hamadi Khemiri

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jan Fares	...	Aziz - Farsan
Torkel Petersson	...	Jörgen
Hamadi Khemiri	...	Sami
Nina Zanjani	...	Amanda
Juan Rodríguez	...	Juan
Anita Wall	...	Edith
Jessica Forsberg	...	Lotta
Kjell Wilhelmsen	...	Man with bicycle
Yankai Yu	...	Angry man
Marie Delleskog	...	Gunnel
Deborah Fronko	...	Deborah
Marisol Hume Eriksson	...	Marisol
Pia Edlund	...	Clerk
Jerker Fahlström	...	Kennel owner
Lena Carlsson	...	Veterinary

Storyline

A heartwarming tale about a beloved father who is trying to cope with cultural clashes, loss and the search for love in average Swedish society.

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Plot Keywords:

eastern europe | tattoo | fast food | volvo | adoption | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Family

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Did You Know?

Trivia

The last feature film by Josef Fares before moving on to design video games.

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Connections

Referenced in Hjelp, vi er i filmbransjen (2011)

User Reviews

Clichè-ridden love in multi-ethnic Sweden

Part comedy, part drama, part cultural clash; this is the kind of movie you should go out to see if you fall into the following categories: 1) You're on a night out, preferably date, with someone whose cultural background is different from your own, 2) You are a Scandinavian who simply love Scandinavian films, despite their frequent array of shortcomings, and will most certainly 'go patriotic', 3) You are desperately trying to prove to yourself that you can be politically correct in all meanings of the term, or 4) You want to see some sort of romantic comedy really, really badly and unfortunately there just isn't anything better on.

It's a quilt, but not very well stitched together. Dangling storyline(s), mostly half-hearted acting, lack of direction, no universal mantra or moral to be grasped. There seems to be no real to the characters or the situations they are in, things just happen and are sort of dealt with. Sometimes in a good ways and most of the times in ways that are quite the opposite.

The film has its moments and will probably go home well with the lovestory-seeking teen demography and likely also their older and less movie-attending peers. But those of you who have seen quite a few similar kind of movies are most likely to see its shortcomings. The upside to this film is that although not being very good, it is at the same time not very bad. And sometimes "not bad" is good enough. Mainly it serves its purpose, and on the upside Jan Fares and Torkel Petersson act splendidly in some of their scenes. And Nina Zanjani looks stunning, as always. Maybe a little too much on the Young Celine Dion side in this film, but stunning nonetheless. There are some thought-out moments and decent ideas, though too many of them seem cramped within the story and even the good ones rarely lead anywhere. My guess is that they just didn't find the time to fine-tune the script. Or maybe the didn't care? The lack of refinedness could very well point towards the latter explanation.

In total I kind of regretted spending an evening going to the screening of this film. But I still hope most of you won't feel the same way after having watched it.

Details

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Release Date:

12 February 2010 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

Balls

Filming Locations:

Trollhättan, Västra Götalands län, Sweden

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$5,674,287

Company Credits

Production Co:

Film i Väst, Memfis Film, Sveriges Television (SVT)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Color:

Color