The man on the roof

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Movie
German title The man on the roof
Original title Mannen på taket
Country of production Sweden
original language Swedish
Publishing year 1976
length 105 minutes
Rod
Director Bo Widerberg
script Bo Widerberg
music Björn J: son Lindh
camera Per Källberg , Odd-Geir Sæther
cut Sylvia Ingemarsson , Bo Widerberg
occupation

The Man on the Roof ( Mannen på taket , 1976) is a Swedish police and action thriller from director Bo Widerberg . He also wrote the script based on the novel Das Ekel aus Säffle ( Den vedervärdige mannen från Säffle , 1971) by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö . The film, produced in Sweden, criticizes the corruption of a complacent older generation of social democratic politicians in Sweden in the 1960s and 1970s.

action

In the semi-darkness of an apartment, an unrecognizable man equips himself with a pistol and a long bayonet. In a hospital, a patient goes to sleep with the window open, but notices that someone is hiding behind the curtain. The intruder kills the patient with the bayonet and escapes undetected. The victim was Police Commissioner Nyman. Inspector Beck, who did not know the victim personally, is leading the investigation, supported by colleague Rönn and the younger inspectors Kollberg and Larsson. Kollberg sees himself as progressive and emancipated; this is how he takes care of his child before he goes on duty so that his wife can sleep in.

He finds out that Nyman was notorious for his unlawful, brutal investigative methods. But because of the solidarity among his comrades, he was never prosecuted. Nyman's closest and absolutely loyal colleague, Hult, denies this and praises Nyman, who did everything he could to ensure "order". He is fed up with being disgraced for his service to society. Röhn comes across countless complaints in the archive that have been filed against Nyman, but all of which have been rejected. One came from policeman Eriksson, who is convinced that Nyman and his colleagues were responsible for the death of his wife: They thought the diabetic was a drunk and locked her up, whereupon she died of diabetic shock .

Eriksson is now divorced, unemployed and has also lost custody of his daughter. He takes position with an automatic rifle on the roof of a skyscraper in downtown Stockholm . From there he shoots down several police officers, but spares paramedics and civilians. In the meantime, Eriksson's apartment was searched and a piece of paper was found with the names Nyman and Hult on it. Apparently the sniper on the roof planned to lure the latter to the scene with his attacks. The attempt to drop a heavily armed policeman on the roof with the help of a helicopter fails because Eriksson puts the helicopter under fire and forces it to turn back.

Thereupon the Stockholm police chief is considering the use of the military. Beck climbs up to Eriksson, armed only with a pistol and disguised as a window cleaner, who immediately kills him with a pistol shot. While Kollberg rescues the seriously injured Beck, Larsson and Hult storm the roof. They are accompanied and guided by a local resident who has a private, illegal weapon, which Larsson approves. Eriksson is shot and goes down. Thereupon Hult hits the defenseless man lying on the ground with the hilt of his weapon and Larsson has to prevent him from killing him.

reception

According to film-dienst , The Man on the Roof is an “effective and exciting crime film”. Beyond the crime story, he criticizes the self-image of the police as well as the current state of the country, even if the reflexivity of the fictional characters has been partially lost through cuts and is displaced by the action spectacle in the second half. "The film paints such a balanced, admittedly predominantly skeptical, picture of violence and how it is combated in the modern state."

In 2012, the film magazine FLM organized a vote for the “best Swedish film of all time” among 50 critics and film scholars, in which The Man on the Roof came in seventh.

Awards

The film was awarded the Swedish Guldbagge Film Prize twice in 1977 for the best film and the best actor , Håkan Serner (Serner also received the award for his participation in Jan Troell's feature film Bang! ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andrew Nest Ingen: Crime and Fantasy in Scandinavia: fiction, film, and social change . University of Washington Press, Seattle 2008, ISBN 978-0-295-98803-0 , p. 49
  2. ↑ Edgar Wettstein in film-dienst No. 23/1978
  3. ↑ ”Körkarlen” utsedd till bästa film at svd.se, August 30, 2012 (accessed on September 9, 2014).