Behind Blue Skies

The summer of 1975 in Sweden. Martin is sixteen; his mother is dead, his father drinks and the house has come apart. He finds summer work at a hotel in the archipelago. Gösta, the manager, takes an interest in him, trusts him and keeps him close. Before long what the work actually is becomes clear: the hotel is a distribution point for drugs and the manager is using him as a courier. Hannes Holm directs. Bill Skarsgård plays Martin and Peter Dalle plays Gösta. The idea is a boy's need for attention. Gösta is the first adult to take Martin seriously, and for that reason what he is made to do stays secondary; the narrative builds the exploitation from there. The Sweden of the mid seventies sits behind it: the golden age of the welfare state, holiday culture, and a drug trade then growing fast, all on the same island. Bill Skarsgård was very young here and the part is among the first to draw attention to him. The narrative never delivers a lesson. Martin's decisions are comprehensible and the film does not blame him; nor is the outcome presented as deliverance. It was nominated at the Guldbagge awards in Sweden and did well commercially. Who it is for: viewers who like Scandinavian youth drama and period narratives. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, the template is familiar, and the ending does not stray far from where it is expected to go.