This film is an adaptation of one of Astrid Lindgren's more low key books. Lindgren is most famous for writing the fantastic tales of Pippi Longstocking. Alla Vi Barn in Bullerbyn, however, represents the author's lower key style that is more grounded in reality.
Bullerbyn is translated as Noisy Village, which is sort of a joke, because Bullerbyn is just about as small and quiet a village as you can have. Living in the village are only three families. The film follows the innocent exploits of the six children of this village as they pass away the days of their summer vacation.
Since the film was simultaneously filmed to be a TV series, the plot is very episodic. For the 90 minutes of the film we watch the six children go from one low key episode to another. What makes the film special is how each scene is such a well crafted observation of what kinds of things children wind up doing when left alone to their own devices. Much of the humor is centered around the fact that there are three boys and three girls. Since they are all under 10 the play is very innocent. But there is nevertheless a lot of gentle teasing that goes back and forth between the sexes.
For those people looking for another fantastic tale like Pippi Longstocking, this may sound boring and trite. For Swedes, however, this is the cinematic equivalent of milk and cookies. I just recently saw this at a Swedish Film festival in a theater filled with young Swedish kids and their moms and a few childless grown-ups as well. The 4 year old girl sitting next to me was clearly entertained and gentle laughter was heard throughout the theater during the entire film. At the end everyone clapped. It is nice to know that a film so innocent as this one can still generate that kind of response from a modern day audience. 7/10
