ATT DÖDA ETT BARN

Gösta Werner

F.: Sten Dahlgren. Int.: Karl-Erik Forsgårdh (l’uomo alla guida), Marie-Anne Condé (la donna in macchina), Kerstin Thörn (la bambina), Georg Årlin (il padre della bambina), Sissi Kaiser (la madre della bambina), Sten Larsson (il benzinaio), Gunnar Sjöberg (voce narrante). Prod.: Minerva Film AB. DCP. D.: 10’. Bn

T. it.: Italian title. T. int.: International title. T. alt.: Alternative title. Sog.: Story. Scen.: Screenplay. F.: Cinematography. M.: Editing. Scgf.: Set Design. Mus.: Music. Int.: Cast. Prod.: Production Company. L.: Length. D.: Running Time. f/s: Frames per second. Bn.: Black e White. Col.: Color. Da: Print source

Film Notes

Midvinterblot’s companion piece of sort: another meditation on violent death, but under very different circumstances. Att döda ett barn takes place during a radiantly sunny summer day, among fields of ripe wheat – an accident will happen here, a child will be run over by a car whose driver is described in the voiceover as a happy man. This is told around 90 seconds into the film, and for the next five minutes one waits for it to happen. The accident’s circumstances are described with clarity, and without passion. The images illustrate the text by Stig Dagerman – they feel like evidence. And yet, in a moment of silence, between the words of Swedish literature’s foremost existentialist voice, female shadows appear out of nowhere on a beach, walking towards the sea, vanishing maybe with the soul of the little girl who went to get sugar for her parents, never to return.

Olaf Möller and Jon Wengström