The Man on the Roof | |
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Swedish DVD cover
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Swedish | Mannen på taket |
Directed by | Bo Widerberg |
Produced by | Per Berglund |
Screenplay by | Bo Widerberg |
Based on |
The Abominable Man by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö |
Starring |
Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt Sven Wollter Thomas Hellberg Håkan Serner |
Music by | Björn J:son Lindh |
Edited by |
Sylvia Ingemarsson Bo Widerberg |
Production
companies |
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Distributed by | SF Studios, Swedish Film Institute |
Release date
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Running time
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110 minutes |
Country | Sweden |
Language | Swedish |
Budget | 4 million SEK |
Box office | 11.5 million SEK |
The Man on the Roof (Swedish: Mannen på taket) is a 1976 Swedish police procedural-thriller film directed by Bo Widerberg. It is based on the novel The Abominable Man by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. The film stars Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt, Sven Wollter, Thomas Hellberg and Håkan Serner.
The plot follows a police officer Martin Beck and his colleagues trying to solve the murder of a senior policeman, known for his brutality against others. While the investigation is ongoing, a well-armed man climbs up on a roof in Stockholm.
Widerberg was inspired by the 1971 American film The French Connection, and Widerberg would make one more crime film in 1984: The Man from Majorca.
The film won two Guldbagge Awards in 1977, for Best Film and Best Actor (Håkan Serner).
A policeman (Nyman) who is a patient at a hospital in Stockholm is brutally murdered, stabbed repeatedly with a bayonet. The investigation that follows is led by Martin Beck and Einar Rönn. It turns out that the murdered man had sadistic tendencies and was known among his colleagues for abusing his police privileges and brutalizing civilians. Although his colleagues had been aware of his behaviour, the police force's esprit de corps had suppressed complaints about him and prevented any reprisals.