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One Summer of Happiness

One Summer of Happiness
Hon dansade en sommar
Hon dansade en sommar poster.jpg
Directed by Arne Mattsson
Produced by Lennart Landheim
Screenplay by Volodja Semitjov
Olle Hellbom
Based on Sommardansen
by Per Olof Ekström
Starring Ulla Jacobsson
Folke Sundquist
Edvin Adolphson
John Elfström
Music by Sven Sköld
Cinematography Göran Strindberg
Edited by Lennart Wallén
Production
company
Distributed by Nordisk Tonefilm
Release date
  • 17 December 1951 (1951-12-17) (Sweden)
Running time
103 minutes
Country Sweden
Language Swedish

One Summer of Happiness (Swedish: Hon dansade en sommar - She danced for a summer) is a 1951 Swedish film by director Arne Mattsson, based on the 1949 novel Sommardansen (The Summer Dance) by Per Olof Ekström. It was the first Swedish film to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. It was also nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival. Today, the film is mainly known for its nude scenes, which caused much controversy at the time and, together with Ingmar Bergman's Summer with Monika (1953), spread the image of Swedish "free love" around the world.

The film tells the story about the university student Göran who spends a summer on his uncle's farm, where he meets the young Kerstin. They instantly fall in love, but Kerstin is ruled by very strict relatives, so they must hide their love story from everyone, not the least from the extremely strict vicar. They experience an intense summer together, and Göran dreads the idea of returning to university in the autumn. But a motorcycle accident puts an end to it all, with Kerstin dying in Göran's arms.

The film caused much international controversy, because of a nude swimming sequence and a love scene which included a close-up of Ulla Jacobsson's breasts, but also because of its very anti-clerical message by portraying a local priest as the main villain. So, in spite of its awards, the film was banned in several countries, among them Spain, and it wasn't released in the United States until 1955.


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