The Evil (film)

Articleissues
refimprove = September 2007
trivia = September 2007

Infobox Film
name = Evil


caption = Region 1 DVD Cover
director = Mikael Håfström
producer = Ingemar Leijonborg
eproducer =
aproducer =
writer = Jan Guillou
Hans Gunnarsson
Mikael Håfström
starring = Andreas Wilson
Gustaf Skarsgård
Jesper Salén
music = Francis Shaw
cinematography =
editing =
distributor =
released = 2003
runtime = 114 minutes
country = Sweden
awards =
language =
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0338309

"Evil" ("Ondskan") is a 2003 Swedish movie, directed by Mikael Håfström, based on Jan Guillou's autobiographical book Ondskan from 1981.

The film is set in a private boarding school in the year 1959 with institutional violence as its theme. The film stars Andreas Wilson as Erik, the main character. Other actors include Gustaf Skarsgård, Kjell Bergqvist and Björn Granath.

Plot

Erik Ponti is a sixteen-year-old boy who faces a lot of violence in his life. At school, he and his gang lend money to other students at high interest, resulting in a beating if they don't pay the money back in time; several teachers maltreat students that don't behave (in the book; in the movie it is not explained so widely). At home he lives with his sadistic stepfather and his mother.

When Erik and his gang are caught stealing records from stores, Erik gets the entire blame because of the loose kind of loyalty in the gang, resulting in his expulsion from school (again, in the book; in the movie he's just shown fighting with other students). But circumstances allow him to matriculate into a private boarding school, Stjärnsberg, where he gets a new chance to continue his studies. Erik decides to try and break away from his earlier violent lifestyle.

But Stjärnsberg isn't as nice and friendly as it seems initially. Erik has to face new kinds of violence in this school; from upperclassmen and members of the school council instead of teachers. At the school, a system called "kamratuppfostran" ("schoolmate upbringing") is in place; a code name for a violent kind of bullying directed especially at nonconforming students, ostensibly to keep discipline and order in school. Erik, being the kind of person who won't accept injustices, quickly becomes the main target.

In the movie, "ondskan" (the evil) may be perceived as Erik himself (as bullying other students prior to his departure to Stjärnsberg), as his stepfather (who beats Erik on every occasion), as the indifference of the teachers at Stjärnsberg, or as "kamratuppfostran", which are represented by Otto Silverhielm and Gustaf Dahlén.

Note: in the movie, Silverhielm is not portrayed as being truly evil, it's rather that his colleagues make him appear so, as Silverhielm apparently wants to give Erik a chance to avoid confrontations with Dahlén.

The film was nominated for an Oscar in the "Best Foreign Language Film" category in the year 2004.

Trivia

*"Ondskan" was Andreas Wilson's first movie. He was chosen out of 120 people who wanted to be cast as Erik Ponti.
*Received a nomination for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003.

Cast

*Andreas Wilson - Erik Ponti
*Henrik Lundström - Pierre Tanguy
*Gustaf Skarsgård - Otto Silverhielm
*Linda Zilliacus - Marja
*Jesper Salén - Dalén
*Filip Berg - Johan
*Johan Rabaeus - Erik's stepfather
*Marie Richardson - Erik's mother
*Magnus Roosmann - Tosse Berg, a gymnasist
*Ulf Friberg - Tranströmer, a teacher
*Lennart Hjulström - Lindblad, the headmaster of Stjärnsberg
*Mats Bergman - Melander, the history teacher
*Kjell Bergqvist - Ekengren, the attorney
*Björn Granath - the headmaster
*Fredrik af Trampe - von Schenken

External links

*imdb title|id=0338309|title=Ondskan