Inga Ålenius Movies
- 2000
Ali (Mike Almaheyu) is a 15-year-old refugee from Somalia who has ended up in Sweden, where he lives in a camp for other displaced persons. There Ali meets Massoud (Michalis Koutsogiannakis), a 40-year-old man originally from Iran. While both Ali and Massoud would like to stay in Sweden, both realize this is not likely to be permitted by immigration authorities. After watching the police attack a group of fellow refugees, Ali and Massoud decide to take their chances as fugitives and hit the road, first swiping an old car and later hiding out in an abandoned basement. While looking for a place where they can settle, Ali and Massoud meet Louise (Lia Noysen), a former beauty queen who has been reduced to working at a hot dog stand and posing for porn magazines. Both Ali and Massoud are attracted to Louise, and Ali becomes angry with his friend when she strikes up a romance with Massoud. As the three wander from town to town, Ali and Massoud receive a chilly welcome from many Swedes, who seem more interested in taking advantage of them then helping them start new lives. Det Nya Landet was originally produced as a four-hour miniseries for Swedish television and was later edited for theatrical release. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 1999
In what has to be one of the worst ideas in Christmas party planning history, Swedish house wife Sara (Katarina Ewerlof) decides to celebrate the yuletide season with her three ex-husbands and their families. Though her current spouse Janne (Peter Haber) initially is quite opposed, he eventually gives in. At first, the party -- filled with adults and children alike -- recalls the gauzy warmth of the famous Christmas scene in Fanny and Alexander (1982). Then the booze kicks in. Families start infighting. Janne grows increasingly annoyed as the guests make repeated references to having sex with his wife. And during dinner, Sara announces that she is pregnant. This strikes Janne as odd considering that he had a vasectomy a year before. Soon the party devolves into utter chaos. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Haber, Leif Andree, (more)
- 1992
Scripted (but not directed) by Ingmar Bergman, Best Intentions is a multilayered backwards glance at the courtship of Bergman's own parents. Henrik Bergman (Samuel Froler) is a struggling theology student in the year 1909. His intended, Anna Aakerbloom (Pernilla August, who married director Bille August while the film was in progress) is from a well-to-do family. Despite the expected class differences and personality clashes, love-or at least mutual understanding-prevails. But after a harsh, spare few years as the wife of a clergyman, Anna yearns for the more bountiful pleasures of her family home. Bergman writes himself into the proceedings as a mewling infant. The current three-hour theatrical version of Best Intentions (original title: Den Goda Viljan) was simultaneously prepared as a six-hour TV miniseries, which ran in Europe, Scandanavia, and Japan. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Samuel Fröler, Pernilla August, (more)
Though he made allusions to his own life in all of his films, Fanny and Alexander was the first overtly autobiographical film by Ingmar Bergman. Taking his time throughout (188 minutes to be exact), Bergman recreates several episodes from his youth, using as conduits the fictional Ekdahl family. Alexander, the director's alter ego, is first seen at age 10 at a joyous and informal Christmas gathering of relatives and servants. Fanny is Alexander's sister; both suffer an emotional shakedown when their recently-widowed mother (Ewa Froling) marries a cold and distant minister. Stripped of their creature comforts and relaxed family atmosphere, Fanny and Alexander suddenly find their childhood unendurable. The kids' grandmother (Gunn Wallgren) "kidnaps" Fanny and Alexander for the purpose of showering them with the first kindness and affection that they've had since their father's death. This "purge" of the darker elements of Fanny and Alexander's existence is accomplished at the unintentional (but applaudable) cost of the hated stepfather's life. Ingmar Bergman insisted that Fanny and Alexander, originally a multipart television series pared down to feature-film length, represented his final theatrical film, though within a year after its release he was busy with several additional Swedish TV projects, and his final work, the 2003 Saraband (also produced for Swedish television), eventually received global theatrical distribution. Oscars went to Fanny and Alexander for Best Foreign Film, Best Cinematography (Sven Nykvist), Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction/Set Decoration. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Pernilla Allwin, Bertil Guve, (more)
- 1982
In 1982, Ingmar Bergman emerged with one of his most singularly acclaimed films - a work that dramatically broke away from much of the moody psychodrama that characterized such earlier motion pictures as Cries & Whispers and Hour of the Wolf. Entitled Fanny and Alexander, and originally intended as the director's "swan song," this epic plunges into the life of a theatrical family named the Ekdahls, in turn-of-the-century Sweden. Bergman filters life through the eyes of the two titular Ekdahl children (Pernilla Alwin and Bertil Guve), as they come of age, lose their father unexpectedly, and must contend with their mother's remarriage to an uncaring, dictatorial clergyman from whom there seems to be no escape. Instantly hailed as a masterpiece, Fanny won a slew of international awards, including four Oscars. Yet curiously, the three-hour theatrical version seen in the U.S. did not represent the full depth and breadth of Bergman's vision. He also prepared a five-hour version for Swedish television, one that ran locally as a miniseries in 1984, in four separate installments. The extended running time gives the director to further develop and flesh out his characters, substories and themes, and will thus strike many fans of the original film as a remarkable discovery. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Pernilla Allwin, Bertil Guve, (more)
