Agneta Ekmanner Movies

Gudny Halldorsdottir directs this slow, nuanced family drama about gnawing jealousy and destructive sibling rivalry. Rannveig (Ragnhildur Gisladottir) and Thurid (Tinna Gunnlaugsdottir) are grown daughters of a wealthy deacon in a remote corner of western Iceland. Thurid endures an unhappy marriage with two children while footloose and fancy-free Rannveig is sent to study in Copenhagen by her parents. While staying with family friends in that great teaming Danish metropolis, Rannveig is seduced by the couple's son Bjorn (Bjorn Floberg). Later it is revealed that Thurid bedded this same Bjorn years previously, and she still holds a torch for him. Upon her return to the windswept wilds of her native land, Rannveig reveals that she is pregnant. Seething with the bilious jealousy, Thurid quietly masterminds a scheme that will save the family's honor. The family announces that Rannveig is engaged to a lovely man in Denmark and schedules a wedding, yet when the alleged groom does not appear on the nuptial date, they tearfully announce that he died. Rannveig eventually gives birth to her love child. Thurid eventually succumbs to her white-hot envy and sells Rannveig's baby to the Danes. Later, their sibling relationship strained some by that kidnapping incident, Thurid shacks up with Bjorn while Rannveig has an illicit affair with a carpenter. This film was based on a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Halldor Laxness, the father of the director. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

This Swedish thriller is based upon one of a 10 part series of novels by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. Two of their books have been made into films. In this first filmed episode, after an American tourist is mysteriously killed and tossed off a tour boat, the local police are baffled by the lack of clues. Enter Martin Beck who finally finds a clue and then sets a trap for the killer. A young policewoman is used as bait and almost loses her life in the film's thrilling conclusion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Mikaela has been thinking all sorts of thoughts about her high-school teacher, romantic thoughts, erotic thoughts, and downright sexual thoughts. What's more, she has been transforming those thoughts into essays which she hands in to him. Of course, his name isn't used in them, so perhaps he doesn't know. Then again, maybe he does. The teacher, in turn, is using the girl's stories as the basis for what he does with the women he picks up on a regular basis. When one of the women he has picked up winds up murdered, Mikaela suspects that her teacher may have killed her. At the same time, she has the uneasy feeling that someone outside her household is watching her just a little too closely for comfort. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Sun Axeslsson and her lover, poet Pär Radström, were central figures in Swedish literary life in the middle of the 20th century. This very literate and literary film is based on one of her semi-autobiographical novels, in which she delineates her attempt to establish her own identity in the midst of her relationships with two powerful, even overbearing men, one of them the poet, the other a mathematician. Set in the 1950s in Paris and Stockholm, Mignon (as she is called in the novel) is coming to grips with her own challenges as a writer, and trying not to submerge her life in that of the verbose, egocentric, older, and well-established poet. While on a trip to Paris with Pär (Johan Rabæus), Mignon (Maria Grip) encounters a Chilean man who envelops her in his Latin warmth, but is also a very self-centered fellow. However, all along, her father quietly has backed her efforts at self expression and self-assertion. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Originally titled Broderna Mozart, the Swedish The Mozart Brothers stars Etienne Glaser as a highly unorthodox opera director. His plans to stage Don Giovanni in bizarre, inappropriate costumes, and to have the orchestra members take singing roles, enrages the conservatory opera company that has engaged him. Glaser is motivated by the "voice of God"--God being in this instance Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose ghost commiserates with the innovational director from time to time. The Mozart Brothers was itself directed by Suzanne Osten, daughter of a leading Swedish film critic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In a fast-paced but unemotional tale of woe with an abrupt closure, a 60-year-old businessman faces first one crisis and then another, with no obvious escape hatch in sight. Gabriel Berggren (Erland Josephson) has rivals in the business world, given that he is an executive in a large company. At home, his marriage has hit the skids, and that does nothing to improve his attitude at work -- which distinctly deteriorates when the CEO dies while at Berggren's desk. That tragedy invites some nasty competition for the dead man's position, and all this pressure is not really made much easier when a charming young woman (Charlotta Larsson) starts working in the office. Berggren's troubles come to a head when he falls ill at the wedding party of one of his rivals -- and unless he is careful, he may be the next to join the CEO.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A melancholy undertone adds originality to this straightforward crime story and also gives pause for thought. Ralf (Jan Waldecranz) comes back to his hometown after completing a jail sentence for armed robbery. His accomplice Lorenz (Christer Boustedt) got away with the crime and has married the love of Ralf's life, Sara (Agneta Ekmanner). Meanwhile, the third accomplice, Herman, has disappeared and Lorenz is the owner of a new, expensive gas station. Matters are all that more complicated because the stash from the robbery has never been found, the police are still after Ralf (Sara is too), and an elderly, respected citizen of the community seems to be harboring some sort of secret. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

John and Disa are a decent couple; she is level-headed, and he has a pretty good job. A handsome lad, much given to idealistic musings, his poorly thought-out ethical ditherings cause him to lose both his job and his wife. His only friend is Bernhard, an older rich man, who cannot offer him much useful advice. He is bolstered up somewhat by his affair with Sonja, who has a very orderly life, despite the fact that she is quite poor. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Mondays are the day that Robert (Tommy Johnson) visits his dying father, a man he has endless quarrels with. Mondays are also the day that he sees his father's nurse, Fanny (Maria Selbing). Robert and Fanny begin having a gentle affair, which perks Robert up a great deal, because he is a sullen sort of fellow, stuck in a nowhere job, embroiled in a marriage that is going nowhere. When Fanny wants him to enter a domestic arrangement with her, however, his courage fails. While his love affair with Fanny is being chronicled, flashbacks occurring during visits with his father flesh out their life-long difficulties. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A man and a woman, both with weak characters, are frustrated by the escalating complexity of their lives as their adulterous relationship continues: he is a school principal (Per Myrberg), she is the wife of a minister (Frej Lindquist). Eventually, they are driven to murder. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A university professor (Gosta Ekman) and his wife (Adriana Asti) hire a young man (Lars Ekborg) to help the professor arrange his papers for publication. The young man comes to live with the couple and leaves his mistress (Agneta Ekmanner) to take the position. The young man discovers very quickly that things are not quite right with the dysfunctional duo. He suspects the wife of trying to poison the professor, who mistreats and degrades his wife by humiliating her in front of the young man. The wife and the young man end up having sex while the professor goes after the young man's mistress. Soon the men swap partners and the blur between reality and fantasy continues in this erotic and confusing feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Old morals fall by the wayside as a young couple agrees to have a child out of wedlock. The woman is a young veterinarian who is drifting apart from her lover. She agrees to have his baby even though their future as a couple is clouded, and they vow to stay together at least until the baby is born. Open discussions with friends about love, sex, mortality and emotional needs are featured between the couple and their friends. The couple forgoes the traditional relationship of marriage and long-term fidelity, allowing for a new found freedom to escape the confining unions of past generations. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide