Gränsen

While we Swedes have too endure boring drama films and drama films that pretends to be comedies it's always fun when something unusual pops up. Gränsen or Beyond the Border is one of these films. It follows a realistic and very possible concept of bored Swedish soldiers wanting to see some action and sneaks over the border to Nazi-occupied Norway.

For those who don't know, Sweden was one of the few unoccupied democracies left i Europe and everybody where expecting Germany to attack any minute. A couple of fresh recruits skies across the border and stumbles into the execution of a Norwegian rebel. In panic they open fire at the Nazi's and are captured.

One of the soldier's brother goes after him along with the stereotypical finish madman/bad-ass and two other Swedish soldiers. A Swedish colonel who is responsible for the soldiers send two marksmen after them to clean it up so he won't be held responsible.

There is a lot of heavy war violence, mostly hand to hand combat that end up in gory stabbings. It's in no way tame and one is very disturbing to see. There are some brief shootouts, the budget won't allow more thus we got stabbings instead. We are also treated with some very suspenseful scenes where our Swedish heroes tries to not be seen by the Nazis.

The end shootout is probably the coolest in a Swedish film and it ends with one of the most haunting, beautiful and horrific images ever put in a Swedish film. It's also interesting to note that the good guys in the end are made up of one Swede, one Finne and and one Norwegian. At some points in history these nations have been one and the same and now they team up against the Nazis. It's a pretty fun little trivia if you know your history.

In the end, Gränsen is a very entertaining Swedish film, I it's not too special from other war films save for that haunting image I mentioned but is worth checking out. More Swedish films like this please.

If you're anticipating an all-out heroic war movie with lots of gunfire, Gränsen will let you down. This movie is in no way intended to be just that. Instead it focuses a lot more on the war-mentality and the will to cross boundaries (both literally and figuratively speaking).

While some reviewers found the behavior displayed by some of the Swedish soldiers questionable, they should stop and think about how they would act in war times. Keep in mind, Swedish soldiers were not expecting a fight after Nazi-Germany left them alone and focused on conquering Russia. Crossing a border (the Norwegian one) suddenly shoves reality into their faces, and a cruel one at that.

Yes, there might have been some typecasting going on. German captains are sadists with round glasses. The Finnish soldier is the bad-ass, and most Swedes easily startled. But other than that this film poses an important question. Not just a historical one for Swedes to reflect upon, but also for present-day viewers: can you cross the border and give up neutrality if you might have to pay for it with your life?

Coming from not only a nation (Norway) which has a lot of heroes connected to the second world war, but also a world re-known town from where some world famous saboteurs came from (Rjukan)h, it's interesting to see a movie from the Swedish side.

They were equally young to the Swedes here, those local schoolboys and students which later one became famous as saboteurs. You saw some of them in the films Max Manus and The Heavy Water Sabotage. I personally got to know a couple of them, amongst them Gunnar "Kjakan" Sønstsbø, which was Norways most decorated war heroes, and a main person in the spiderweb of sabotage actions which made the war difficult for the occupiers during the war. And my father very secretly brought food up to saboteurs hiding in the mountains, waiting for the right time to hit. This was so secret that I didn't get to know this until many years after his death, by strangers which knew my dad.

Sweden has been a peaceful nation, and their neutrality during the WW2 is well known, but we've heard very little on their war history. This film tells a bit about the nervousness the Swedes felt even though they chose not to take sides during the war. Norway wasn't at all ready to fight against the German war machine, nor where the Danes or most other nation attacked and occupied during the war. Still there sprung heroes out of the war. They started off as young and stupid, but still with some courage and luck, which in some years made them both experienced and later on heroes.

This movie shows how naive the Swedes where, when they went from peaceful Sweden into wartime Norway on silly missions. They weren't at all prepared for what they met. Many Nowegian soldiers died the same way, without becoming either known or heroes. This film could as much as being about Swedes have been about Nowegians, or Finns. We get to see the experienced Finn in action here. He had learned how fights were won during the Finnish winter war. Therefore he was better able to deal with the horrors of war.

Though this film had some troubles establishing our sympathy for the characters in the first hour, it manages to do so in the last hour, when the severeness has caught both them and us as viewers.

This war film is more about the traumas of war than about the war. I found the film fascinating for more tan one reason. I also found he film honest and no extra hero bullshit, just plain true and raw realism. That there's a drama at the end I found refreshing. It was actions like that which made the war hell for Germans in Norway. Impossible to know where and when they would occur, but many felt obliged to do what they could to make it difficult for the occupiers.

A review here thought the Germans where cliché fully horrible here, but torture and nastiness was no stranger to the occupiers. This was how they got to know about hideouts and saboteurs. This was a very real war.

A good movie, which could have had a better start than it did.

It's not terribly bad, but it's far from good either. It doesn't have much of a story. You also don't feel anything for the people involved, you get far too little character development to feel anything for them. I also get the feeling throughout the film that it's not real, which of course it isn't since it's a film, but a war film that's supposed to be realistic, you want to get the feeling of authenticity, but you don't get that here. There are also a lot of choices made by the characters that don't feel believable and also quite stupid.

A lot also feels illogical, why some characters want to kill another even though they're on the same side for example.

The Swedes feel stupid and naive, the Finns or the Finn are of course supposed to be the tough one, but you don't buy it. The Germans feel extremely stereotypical Nazis.

I think there's a lot that's wrong, the script is quite thin, the acting is uneven, and some actors don't feel like they fit the roles. But above all, it's probably a directing problem.

It's a shame because it could be an interesting story to tell, about the Swedes who guarded the border with Norway, where smuggling occurred, but also help to the Norwegian resistance movement, espionage, etc.

I wanted to like this movie, but I just can't. The poor script, the editing and the direction just destroys any possible enjoyment of this Swedish WWII-thriller.

The premise of the movie - a WWII border incident between neutral Sweden and the by Germany occupied Norway - is credible. The winter setting could make for some good cinematography.

However, scene after scene is utterly ridiculous. Again and again characters behave like complete idiots without explanation. The behavior is so utterly improbable and stupid that it is impossible to take the movie seriously.

Additionally, many characters suffer from tired clichés (all German captains are of course pale psychopaths who torture people for no reason and smoke cigars with which they burn their victims). Lastly, both the editing and the direction leaves much to be desired. Scenes are not set up properly. Action scenes look ridiculous with characters appearing from nowhere etc. Many scenes are missing, adding to the sense of incredibility.

There is no wonder that the script is bad: it was written by the lead actor who, as it seems, has never written anything for the screen previously.

Avoid this movie and see something else.