Äppelkriget

I love this movie! I too saw it in Portland Oregon in the 70's. The movie became my #1 favorite and it's unfortunate that others have not seen it.

The assortments of characters in the film were each so delightful in their own way. I'm hoping to locate a copy with English subtitles so that I can share it with others and be delighted just as I was the first time when I viewed it.

This film is perhaps the most charming soap bubble I've ever encountered. I saw theaters full of disenchanted college students leave with the broadest of smiles on their faces and a sense that cynicism might not be the eternal verite after all. Add to that the most delightful images imaginable and you have a film not to be missed by any but the most hardened of hearts.

I too saw this film in the 1970s at the Venice Fox, which was then an art house and which has now been re-purposed for auctions or something. They screened it for a week; it was some sort of benefit, and I remember going a second time and dragging a few friends with me. It remains one of my all-time favorite films. My Swedish friend, Lennart, says that it is fairly well-known in Sweden and remains popular--it's a lot of fun but it's also a piece of devastatingly targeted agit-prop. I've been searching for it, on and off, since I saw it, in the face of blank stares from the vast majority of Americans, who have never heard of it, and even from clerks in independent video stores, who think I'm nuts. If only someone would make a DVD with English-language subtitles!

If a movie can be a national anthem, this movie is it - for Swedes and Sweden. Comics Tage and Hasse hit every note right in this remarkable and "lucky" movie. When "Äppelkriget" is shown in Svenska Ord festivals - the whole country turns out. Maybe you have to be Swedish to fully appreciate this wonderful flick - but with music by national bard Evert Taube and a magnificent cast, this movie simply cannot fail!

Anglamark, a rural Swedish town, must become an amusement park, called Deutschnyland. At least, that is the aim of Tore Gustafsson, the entrepreneur of the town. 'It means lots, lots of money. And, finally, we can put this castle on fire.' A rebellious man, a peasant woman with magical powers and an inventor try to thwart the project.

The Apple War is a witty low budget film, which charms the viewer using inventive solutions and enthusiastic actors. It is the kind of creative 'special effect' that nowadays is used by Michel Gondry. The PR man with a growing hat, actually becoming as big as himself. A Stonehenge-like structure changed into a casino.

It is not at all the straightforward satire you might expect, actually quite the opposite. You can describe this as a fairy tale with satirical elements. This makes way for bizarre and unpredictable interludes, as the episode with three simple-minded brothers (Max von Sydow just two years before his big break with The Exorcist). The scene with the man who has a beard that grows against the walls. Or the scene with the peeing giant.

However, the film remains satirical until the end. And you might even call this film prophetic. The Gustafsson's are the boss in this modern day and age. Everywhere you see them destroy beautiful things in order to build their Deutschnylands. 'Old motherland will be... future motherland!' One of the main reasons I think that this film is so enjoyable: it is made with confidence. Director Tage Danielsson and Hans Alfredson were comedians who worked together on films and TV shows since 1956, so they were well experienced in 1971.

I loved this film and recommend this everyone who enjoys obscure and original cinema. I rate it 8/10.