Quarter Life Crisis
The world according to Sven-S. Porst
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Populärmusik från Vittula¶
437 words on Films
I happen to be quite keen on – possibly too keen on – Swedish music. This may be because I like Scandinavia or because they seem to have numerous great bands in Sweden. Thus I was amused to see that a Swedish film on music, Populärmusik från Vittula was coming to a local cinema.
While the film didn’t quite match the pop desires which you may have expected to be met, it was still an enjoyable film. A film that deals with many things and plays in what looks like extremely rural Sweden almost half a century ago. The little town the film plays in is Pajala which is not only quite far in the north but also almost in Finland. In fact, throughout the film we get to see how people there ‘like’ their Finnish neighbours while being almost treated like they were Finns by the other Swedes (and there’s also the Finnish title Populäärimusiikkia Vittulanjänkältä
which with all its double letters and umlauts makes me smile – unfortunately Finnish is said to be really hard to learn, though).
But that’s just a tiny detail. The big story is about two boys, Matti and Niila who grow up together. Throughout his childhood Niila is regularly beaten up by his father but tries to not make a fuss about it while Matti grows up in a harmless family. Just this difference gives them quite contrary outlooks on life. While Matti may consider it cool to get out of Pajala once he grows up, Niila absolutely has to leave.
A new spark of colour comes into their countryside life once a new music teacher arrives at their school and manages to get proper band equipment in there. There the boys get to form a band and play at some occasions. And while Niila wants to live that dream and eventually manages to break out, Matti isn’t quite as determined but rather aims for the good life and the girls coming with their little band stardom. Because of this we eventually see the friends part as Niila wants to go and live ‘the life’.
While I didn’t think the film was too exciting, it was an interesting view on the old times and a different region of Europe. I also really liked the humour that was present throughout the film, particularly in the opening and closing scenes which reminded me of one of my favourite cartoons. Reading some comments on IMDB suggested that quite a few subtleties from the original book were lost in the film. So it might be worth to take a look at the book as well…
