Reading Anthony’s post about ‘the way things were’:

http://www.freedom2b.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4094

(gosh Anthony, I was born in 1969 and I thought I was ancient!)

reminded me of a fantastic 4-part tv mini-series I have just seen. It was only released on DVD early this year and I don’t think it has made it out of Sweden yet. If you like arthouse / drama / foreign films (ie you don’t mind reading subtitles) and are interested in how it was ‘back then’ with Evangelical churches and the social changes of the past 50 years, there is a good chance you will enjoy this series (particularly if you like gay Christian plots… hint hint!).

Written by Jonas Gardell who is probably Sweden’s most well known gay man, a comedian AND a Christian. It also features Tom Ljungman who played Patrik in the comedy “Patrick 1.5”.

It is called “De Halvt Dolda” (Those Half Hidden). Here is the link to the trailer so you can take a look. Sad in parts but if you can work out the relationships between the characters, the end will blow you away. I loved it.

http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=77245

Available at Amazon UK. I’d love to hear from anyone who enjoys it!

There are a couple of scenes of a man yelling at his wife and the world generally (yelling is considered fairly violent in sweden!) and one scene of particularly disturbing physical violence. But I usually just close my eyes at the odd violent scene. I dont watch violent films generally speaking.

Neither middle aged or ancient are as bad as being a dinosaur! Lets hope we dont get that!

Glad to hear someone else closes their eyes at violence Ash…..I can’t watch it as well. I’m a totally non violent person……can’t even watch someone hitting another person on TV.

What I found really interesting with this film, without wanting to give too much away, was its portrayal of how adults treat children and how this has generally changed over the last 50 years (at least in Sweden!).

My partner’s (Swedish) parents simply did not believe me when I told them about a recent SMH poll that showed 60% of parents in Australia believe it is okay to smack children. In Sweden this is not only not tolerated, it is outlawed and has been since 1979. Of course child abuse still occurs but only a very small number think that hitting a child is ok – about 7% or fewer.

I find the Australian figure appalling. How can someone actually hit a vulnerable child?