New Mischief by Emil

At the Katthult farm Emil is at it again. In this one he buys a horse, hoists his sister Ida up the flagpole, catches his father's finger in a rat trap, and wrecks the village fair. Each time he is shut in the woodshed, where he carves another wooden man. Olle Hellbom directs. The source is Astrid Lindgren's books, and Lindgren wrote the screenplay. Jan Ohlsson plays Emil. It is the second film in the series. All three came from the same shooting period and share material with the television version. The form of the punishment is the heart of it: his father shuts him in the woodshed and he sits there carving wooden figures. In the books the figures run into the hundreds, each one the record of a piece of mischief. The punishment becomes a mode of production. The flagpole scene became known in Sweden independently of the film and is among the most cited passages in the book. Lindgren's view of childhood is consistent: mischief is not a moral fault but energy with nowhere to go, and the failure of adults to see that is the problem. Who it is for: viewers who like Astrid Lindgren adaptations and Scandinavian children's cinema. Who it is not for: it proceeds episode by episode with no single story, and without the first film nobody is introduced.