Sopor (1981)

The title of this comedy is the first indication of the absurd: "sopor" means "trash" in Swedish and the acronym that is the film's title is playing with words to name a make-believe organization that stands up for the lowly or forgotten in society. About 1000 children of SOPOR unload from the subway one morning, march to the Royal Palace, and proceed to blithely take it over, holding the royal family up for a very reasonable ransom: they want the powers-that-be to reconsider their treatment of neglected or unpopular groups, like the elderly and in the case of this film, those who protest the development of nuclear power plants (a contemporary issue). Queen Sylvia (Gynet Movig), King Carl-Gustaf (Brasse Braennstroem), and Princess Victoria (Lena Nyman) are hostages who take kindly to the children's efforts, but given their status as royals, the best of Sweden's security police are out to free them by any devious means possible. This includes a security police chief launching into various character disguises and the opposition leader sweet-talking the children as only a politco with years of self-promotion can do. As broadly-painted characters from the government move in and out of the scenes, the spoof zeros in on real politicians. The satire does not bite lethally, and still leaves the audience something to chew on once the laughter has subsided. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi