Sune's Summer

Directed by Stephan Apelgren, this Swedish family comedy adapts the eighth book in Anders Jacobsson and Sören Olsson's Sune series. The Andersson family plans a holiday in Greece, but when the younger son breaks the travel agency's window the cost becomes impossible and they settle for a camping trip in a caravan instead. On the way the mother runs over the father's foot with the caravan, they end up at a hospital, and there Sune falls for a girl named Cornelia, only to discover at the campsite that the two families are neighbors. To win her over he sets about extracting earrings from a toy vending machine, funding the attempts by returning bottles. There is a nice story behind the series: the authors are cousins, the stories were first made as ninety episodes for Swedish Radio, and Anders wrote them while doing his military service, with Sören doing the drawings. The brand had already become a national event with a 1991 Christmas calendar series that drew over three million viewers, and the film followed, opening on Christmas Day. Peter Haber was nominated for a Guldbagge, Sweden's national film award, for his role as the father. The Greek holiday the family gives up here finally happened nineteen years later in the series' next feature. Who it's for: Fans of Swedish family comedy and the warm register of 1990s children's cinema. Who it's not for: Not for anyone unfamiliar with the series and Swedish popular culture, since much of its appeal rests on recognition.