The Slingshot (film)
| The Slingshot | |
|---|---|
VHS cover
|
|
| Directed by | Åke Sandgren |
| Written by |
Åke Sandgren Roland Schütt (novel) |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Göran Nilsson |
| Distributed by |
Nordisk Film (Denmark) Svenska Filminstitutet (Sweden) |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
102 minutes |
| Country | Sweden |
| Language | Swedish |
| Box office | $309,117 (USA) |
The Slingshot (Swedish: Kådisbellan) is a Swedish drama film which was released to cinemas in Sweden on 24 September 1993, starring Jesper Salén, Stellan Skarsgård and Basia Frydman. Directed by Åke Sandgren, the film was based on Roland Schütt's 1989 autobiographical novel of the same name (translates to "The Condom Slingshot").
Roland (Salén) is the 12-year-old son of a Russian Jewish mother (Frydman) and a socialist father (Skarsgård), coming of age in 1920s . Due to his family's background, he has become an outcast to those around him, a constant target of bullying by his peers, and often humiliated and physically punished by a sadistic schoolteacher (Ernst-Hugo Järegård) in front of classmates. In retaliation against his tormentors, Roland steals condoms from his mother's tobacco shop inventory and turns them into crude slingshot weapons. He also falls in love with a neighborhood girl (Frida Hallgren), but as Roland attempts to toughen up and improve his troubled life, he also allies with the wrong group of friends and inadvertently makes himself a juvenile offender.
Most outdoor scenes were shot in Prague as the Stockholm townscape at the time was considered to have undergone too many changes to depict the 1920s.
The Danish-Swedish production has an 89% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.AllMovie critic Clarke Fountain called the film an "affectionate, richly detailed portrait", while film critic James Berardinelli gave the film three and a half out of four stars and called it "a wonderful mix of tragedy, humor, and triumph." Conversely, the Washington Post had an unfavorable view of the movie and called the story "a catalogue of catastrophes that surely left the real protagonist with many emotional scars."
...
Wikipedia