Sam Kessel Movies

A family is slowly but surely torn apart by the neuroses of the individual members in this emotional drama from Sweden. Bosse (Rolf Lassgard) and Mona (Maria Lundqvist) are a middle-class couple raising three children in a quiet suburban neighborhood. Teenaged Ola (Erik Johansson) is the oldest sibling, followed by Kickan (Emma Engstrom) and Morgan (Linus Nord). Bosse works for a company that makes tissue paper, while Mona works part-time as a nurse; both are dissatisfied with their lives, and while Bosse puts up a brave face to hide his depression, Mona makes little secret of her feelings. When Mona learns that Ove (Mats Blomgren), a man she once had an affair with, has returned to Sweden after two decades in America, she finds herself falling back into infidelity; young Morgan, an emotionally thin-skinned child, soon becomes aware of his mother's actions and is deeply shocked. Kickan, who often quarrels with Ola, gets to know one of his friends and ends up going out on a date with him; the young man takes her to a party where she is forced to have sex with him in front of a crowd of people, leaving her emotionally devastated. In time, the family's many small crises build into an explosion, in which they are forced to confront each other about what has gone wrong in their lives. Familjehemligheter received an enthusiastic reception in its presentation at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The second feature from Lukas Moodysson, who directed the internationally acclaimed Fucking Åmål, Tillsammans is the tale of life on a Stockholm commune in the mid-'70s. After suffering more than her share of abuse from her husband, Rolf (Michael Nyqvist), Elisabeth (Lisa Lindgren) takes her two children, Stefan (Sam Kessel) and Eva (Emma Samuelsson), to a commune run by her brother Göran (Gustav Hammarsten). Life at the commune is crowded with people with laid-back attitudes towards sex, nudity, and recreational drug use, prompting plenty of political debate. Göran's partner, Lena (Anja Lundkvist), is a particular proponent of free-spirited bed-hopping, something Göran doesn't really like but tolerates. Lena duly gets involved with the rebellious Erik (Olle Sarri) and finds fulfillment in the form of her first orgasm, something that leads her to confess to Göran that she was always faking it with him. Meanwhile, various dramas are at work amongst the other commune members, including the once-married Lasse (Ola Norell) and Anna (Jessica Liedberg) (who split up when Anna announced she was a lesbian) and Klas (Shanti Roney), whose advances to Lasse are continually rebuffed. The goings-on of the commune are observed and commented on by a pair of neighbors, Margit (Therese Brunnander) and Ragner (Claes Hartelius), whose marriage is so lackluster that Ragner masturbates compulsively. Their son, the fat and miserable Fredrik (Henrik Lundström), befriends Elisabeth's daughter, Eva, who longs to have a family again. When Rolf appears on the scene seeking reconciliation, it seems Eva may get her wish. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide