The Great Day on the Beach

A grown Gustav Adolf tells about one day from his childhood. On that day his mother, his father and the whole stairwell of the building went to the beach. The place is Copenhagen in the 1930s, a backyard flat in a working class quarter. Small Gustav Adolf holds his father Axel in great respect. Axel’s tongue is a lively one and he has a story ready at every opportunity. The stories often come from the days he spent on the plains of Argentina. The film enlarges that single day through the child’s eyes and never pulls the poverty towards pathos. Erik Clausen, Nina Gunke and Benjamin Rothenborg Vibe appear in Stellan Olsson’s hundred minute film, a joint Danish and Swedish production, completed in 1991.