The Call-up

Jonsson is called back to his old regiment for a refresher on what he learned during his conscription a few years earlier. He finds his old friends there: Larsson, the platoon leader, and the music-loving captain known as Beethoven. Nobody takes the exercise particularly seriously, and the days pass in joking, slipping away and bad food. Meanwhile a journalist who has come to write the exercise up starts taking an interest in him. Lasse Åberg's Swedish comedy did very large business at home. Janne Carlsson plays Jonsson and Åberg is in the cast as well. Telling national service through tedium and absurdity rather than heroism is what set it apart in its own moment.