User reviews

I would recommend Ondskan to anyone who is interested in coming-of-age films. American cinema has always been expert at such portrayals, and it is good to see so accomplished an example out of Sweden. I liked especially the fact that the director never wavers as he unmasks the unwholesome face of an angst-ridden, violence-prone, socially intransigent Swedish society of the not so long ago . Set in the fifties, mostly at a posh boarding school for the upper-class, where the sixth-form boys, led by an effete Swedish aristocrat, go about enforcing their arbitrary and violent rules while the faculty turn a blind eye, this film cleverly avoids the hooks, punches and triumphs of the underdog come to grips with the jack-booted status quo via his fists alone by allowing him to prevail to justice through the implementation of Swedish law. There are enough fisticuffs along the way, however, to satisfy the blood-thirsty among you. Well-acted, good script, beautiful cinematographic moments.

In Sweden, Erik Ponti (Andreas Wilson) is the son of a remiss mother, and his stepfather gives sadistic beatings on him, using the most futile pretexts, without any interference of his mother. His dysfunctional family makes him a very violent teenager, culminating with his expulsion from the public school system in Sweden, due to a fight and aggression against another pupil. His mother sells some belongings of her and sends him to the elitist private school of Stjärnberg, as his last chance to complete his basic education. However, behind the name of the expensive and conservative school, there is a code of (dis)honor among the students, where the younger and those who belong to the lower social classes are humiliated by the veterans and those who belong to the high social classes without any questioning of the director. Erik feels like in hell while studying in Stjärnberg.

"Evil" is a stunning movie, which shows the danger of the power in wrong hands. Indeed, it is a psychological study of violence, which leads to cruelty. It explains the social behavior of, for example, street children in Brazil, who are sent very young to state reformatories and become cruel criminals when adults. The story is very engaging and the performance of the cast is outstanding, highlighting Andreas Wilson and his greatest opponent, the sadistic Otto Silverhielm (Gustaf Skarsgard). This movie shakes the viewers and in the end, we are cheering to Erik's revenge, wishing him to kill his aggressors, in a total inversion of the moral values. The DVD released by the Brazilian distributor VF Vídeo Filmes shows also a total lack of respect with the Brazilian consumers: in the Extras, there is an interview in Swedish with the director Mikael Häfström and the making-of, both without sub-titles, as if Brazilian people could understand this language. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Evil – Raízes do Mal" ("Evil – Roots of Evil")

This is a great film. Truly outstanding. The characters are real and the story, however farfetched, rings true to life. Particularly enjoyable is the internal fight that transforms Erik from an angry youth to a man. And who could forget Andears' handsome good looks?!? Watch out Hollywood! Better prepare for the Swedish invasion! If you have the opportunity to see this film, do. It's well worth your time and money.

I wonder, as I write this, why a film like Ondskan hasn't received commercial distribution in the States. Perhaps distributors assume Americans are too removed from the world of mid-century upper class boy's boarding schools in Sweden to relate to the film, which is our loss. Ondskan presents a microcosm of cruelty, status, and one-upsmanship - one might say evil - that exists in such an institution. Every year we read another horror story of a hazing gone too far. Children trounce their playmates. There's plenty of physical aggression among boys. The latest discussion concerns what among girls is called relational aggression, in which an individual is harmed through the hurtful manipulation of peer relationships and/or their friendships. .Neal LaBute has taken the idea of sadistic relationships to the American workplace in 'In the Company of Men' and to the suburbs in 'Your Friends and Neighbors'. There have certainly been other films tackling this particularly subject of sadism in boarding schools, Young Torless (Der Junge Törless) in 1966, comes especially to mind. What is captivating about Ondskan ('Evil') is both cinematic and psychological. The world of this o-so reputable boys school is painted in earth tones and fine wood with muted light rendering its cold emotions. The set design by Anna Asp (who's has done some other great looking films) lets us feel as though we have lived in this space. The lead character, Erik Ponti, at first we think will be the embodiment of the 'evil' of the title. He is regularly and systematically strapped by his stepfather. He transfers that frustration to his own classmates, which is what gets him sent to the boarding school in question. There he is ritually brutalized by the upperclassmen, which is, we are led to understand, the expected behavior in this hierarchy. To the administration and faculty this is apparently part of school tradition. Eric's initial unwillingness to fight back, despite a similar unwillingness to bend to arbitrary, sadistic, and unwritten rules, is relentlessly frustrating. As an audience we really want him to act. But his honor, his fortitude, and the fact his mother has hocked some heirlooms to pay tuition, keep him from lashing back. We are thus submitted to the same unremitting abuses with no real payoff. I will refrain from revealing the end, but it is not when or what you might expect. The result is a great ride and an elating experience. The audiences at Harvard, where I saw the film, applauded afterward. It's not a perfect film. There are clichés and expected set-ups. Still the mushy adolescence of the actors cast in these parts is consistently smart. The music is tasteful and well used. The direction is subtle and the violence is felt more than seen, but when it happens it is as ugly as it deserves to be.

I just saw "Ondskan" and I have to admit: It's one of the best films I've ever seen. I own approx. 200 DVDs and this is among the 5 best, without doubt. I also gave it a ten at the vote. What I don't understand is why the majority of voters have given this movie a 7. With an average of 7.7 that almost the same as "Secondhand Lions" on 7.4 - and that sucked(at least compared to this Oscar-nominated film). Maybe the reason it's so low is because the movie is made in a foreign language, so the American or non-Scandinavian speaking people won't understand all the points. This could very well be it. I just want future viewers of this IMDb-profile to know that there are others who also disagree on the grade given. And please reply to my comment if you agree.

I was amazed at how excellent this film was. I just did not expect much and I was blown away. My first Mikael Hafstrom film was Derailed which also surprised me. It was not a great film but it was very good and much better than the general reviews that it garnered. It made me curious about Evil and I just cannot recommend this film enough. Andreas Wilson is terrific as the "title" character and the way his character develops is quite different from the way one might expect. You will be rooting for him to overcome the cruelty and evil that surrounds him throughout the film. If you enjoy coming of age tales do not miss this masterpiece. I look forward to Mr. Hafstroms future films. "1408" is up next and it sounds terrific.

One more thing, I just finished watching Saint Ralph and would highly recommend watching it as a double feature with "Evil". They really play well together.

Well... I was looking for a horror movie and the title suggested one, but I was wrong and it is a good thing because I doubt I would give a 10 to some horror movies...

This is a drama, psychological drama with the great leading role of a young man. It helps I guess that he is also beautiful. Other roles are great too, especially of his opponent and his roommate.

The film is very interesting, not a minute of boredom. The beginning may suggest one way of how the things will going on, but we see pretty soon that the story will have other way - the one of letting go and control of anger.

It may sound silly, but, in a way, I consider this movie a modern sorta fairytale - good does triumphs over evil in the end.

10 from me.

Erik Ponti(Andreas Wilson) is a young trouble maker who is constantly abused by his stepfather and often ignored by his mother. After a fight in his school, Eric gets enrolled in a boarding school by his mother. At the new school, Erik only makes one good friend Pierre(Henrik Lundström) but their lives slowly start falling apart when the older boys from the school make a pact to make Erik's life a living hell. This was a very gripping and disturbing movie. I saw this at the Vancouver Film Festival and enjoyed it quite a lot. Andreas Wilson is a gorgeous and talented young man and I hope he becomes big someday. I would give Ondskan or also known as "Evil" 8/10.

Ondskan is a Swedish movie about a young man who despite being a smart student often gets in trouble with his bad conduct and reputation. So much so that he is soon expelled from school and is given little chance to have a good future. With the help of his mother he is given a last chance at graduating at an exclusive all male school. There he finds contrasting fortunes as he struggles against the cruel upperclassmen and finds friendship and love as he struggles to finish school. This movie was nominated for a Oscar for best Foreign Language film.

I thought the actors did a great job in portraying their characters. Andreas Wilson did a great job as Erik as he went from a furious student being bullied to a softer Erik when it came to scenes with Marja. I thought he did a great job in the transformation fro his many personalities. Even more surprising is the fact that this film is actually his first movie. Also a menacing Gustaf Skarsgard did a great job in playing the big bully in the film.

You could also in this film some very basic themes such as love, friendship and the constant battle of good versus evil. They were well crafted into the film and some of the scenes I thought were good enough to display these themes.

Set in a Swedish boarding school, Erik was expelled from his last school for fighting, but now history is now repeating. Erik believes in personal freedom, not liking being told how to live, so when the sixth form student council sets to bring Erik into line, being a smart ass and constantly disobeying; bloody fights ensue.

Erik's rebellion though stems from his family. His father is dead and his mother is seeking new love. Her new boyfriend is an oppressive and abusive aristocrat, dealing out whippings to Erik over minor matters.

The Student council deal out their usual hazing to the freshmen, but Erik is the first one to ever stand up for himself and break tradition. In this school the law is not dealt by the teachers, its the student council who hand out punishments, the teachers scream ignorance to this, never taking care nor notice. The punishments range from the simple to the very dangerous.

Evil is a great look on friendship, freedom, punishment and a view on totalitarianism. Its 'The Experiment' set within 'Dead Poets Society' with abit of 'sleepers' for good measure. You start to wonder why people are given powers that can deal out such brutal punishments that can be such life threatening.

At times this film can be very dark, yet it does have trouble holding onto this. During the scenes of brutality, its quite confronting, but most of the time its very lite and does have a hard time keeping your attention; if it had let the violence poke it head out more often it would have been a lot more disturbing and a lot more powerful. The fights here are quite bloody and brutal, director Mikael Håfström wasn't afraid to throw some blood around the walls.

It kinda mind blowing that this was based on actual events.

First off, I'm American and I have been watching some Scandinavian movies recently and I have to give two big thumbs up to the film makers from that part of the world. They have been making some amazingly powerful films.

Let me also take a shot at Hollywood. I cannot even hardly watch a movie they make anymore. They are so sexually perverted or filled with wanton violence or just juvenile writing. It really is horrible. Most of the time I start watching American movies and I just turn them off.

So there's my anti-Hollywood rant - now on to this movie.

It is difficult to watch at times and I think the main character acted a lot better than I personally would. It is so aggravatingly painful how badly people can treat other people and this movie does not pull any punches in that regard.

And still there is a certain sweetness to some of the relationships in this film - the kind you can now only see in foreign films and never from that cesspool Hollywood has become.

So I highly recommend this film though be ready for a certain level of violence.

This movie is well-written, well-acted. I think you'll like it.

Jan Guillou's very self-biographical book Ondskan has finally got its first attempt at a book-to-screen adaptation. Both tell the story of Erik Ponti, who grows up with an abusive stepfather and a passive and withdrawn mother, and how this troubled teenager spends the last terms of high school in a boarding school. This boarding school, with a very traditional past, uses ill-treatment and violence as a form of upbringing, given from older students to the younger in a form of hierarchy. The plot revolves around how Erik, much used of beating and taking beatings, tries to restrain from using it to fight off this evil order, which proves to be a lot harder than he thought.

The book is a greatly crafted piece, which is easy to pick up but also discusses very basic themes of evil and violence and what way we can prevent it from taking a hold in our society. Jan Guillou is famous for being the type of person who doesn't take crap from anyone, so to speak, which unfortunately doesn't show as well in the movie as in the book. There are some serious changes in the adaptation, some of which are understandable, though others change the whole approach of the story and the depth of the character. Erik has become a lot more passive and softer, and the violence he inflicts himself is only a part of what the book shows.

The casting of the movie is acceptable, though it could've been done better. Erik's parents play their roles perfectly and most of the teacher's at the school feel spot on. Andreas Wilson's acting, as the lead star, is however lacking, since he rarely show any type of genuine emotion.

What the movie did right, though, was bringing the time and place of the story to life. It feels like it's been filmed in the real location, even though the 50's feeling doesn't appear unless there are any classic cars on the street. They've succeeded in giving it a sort of timeless feel, which probably appeals to the younger, teenage audience better.

Overall, the movie works, but that's just it. It obviously gave new attention to the book, which in my opinion is much better.

Rating: 6/10

Ludicrous lapses in logic and credibility really badly sadly undermine what is technically an interesting Swedish production of repetitive face smashing boarding school bullying. If you have never seen another film and this is your first trip to the cinema then you might be impressed and appalled in equal servings... especially if as an audience member you simply - very simply - just accept anything that arrives on screen without wondering how and why it is there. You can read other comments for the storyline but I shall keep my comments to my reaction at enduring 113 bewildering minutes of what is an 80 minute idea stretched with implausible melodrama, really obvious cliché character/casting, and truly offensive disgusting explicit violence. If you get past the first 5 minutes and the bleeding busted pulverised teenage face depicted in steady gruesome distressing close-up you will immediately realise this film is made by someone who believes his audience are sooooo stupid, simpleton and unintelligent that the film must be made with every moment, every act of ridiculous cruelty and hammy melodrama pasted onto their shiny eager audience faces. Here is a film about bullying in a boarding school. Here is a young handsome teen central actor who smashes faces at school. Cue ugliness, but it is almost OK apparently because he is handsome and misunderstood and his stepfather is a bully too (poor kid is Cinderfeller). Packed off to the most corrupt boarding school imaginable, run by isolated muppet old men and with an in-your-face group of absurdly sadistic prefects EVIL becomes increasingly unintelligent and implausible ... for this simple reason: all the viciousness and team cruelty is played completely out in the open, the whole school knows about it and for 100 minutes nobody does anything except look mournful, or hurt or cries... even the kitchen staff and all other schoolboys - everyone - but nobody goes to the police, or charges the headmaster's office with 50 kids in tow to accuse the headmaster of allowing this cretinous stupidity to fester unchecked and unstopped in what is supposed to be an elite boarding academy. Everyone keeps saying 'don't fight back, you might get expelled'.... well wouldn't you actually WANT to be expelled from this stupid hell hole? Why stay there? Is there no other schools in Sweden? How easy would it be to go to the Education Authorities or the Police and expose this cruelty? The whole school is a witness to it.... Yeesh! In the last ten minutes our 'hero' Erik phones a lawyer who prances in (hilarious clichéd character and performance) and - bingo! - problem solved! Also, the climactic forest scene between Senior teen Silverhielm defies logic... apparently they are both miles in the forest when this confrontation scene happens... but why and how did they get exactly THERE? It is all just silly and insulting - to each other as characters and to the audience. If you have not seen SCHOOL TIES, or SWIMMING UPSTREAM, or TAPS , or HARRY POTTER 1 2 3 4 5, or DEAD POET SOCIETY or the great German Nazi teen drama NAPOLA then you might find some unseen clichés here.. This film is tedious implausible angry angst played and directed really badly. Apparently at the end of it all Erik, our 'hero' has learned not to smash faces anymore because of the horrible pointless hazing he saw and got at this stupid corrupt school. He even has the stock standard tubby nerdy room mate... it is cliché after cliché with a keenness by the director to explicitly depict visual viciousness.. which in turn could make the director a bully too towards the audience. We are not that stupid that we cannot see all these inconsistencies.. and for that alone makes ONDSKAN a really poorly directed and depicted story. This is an ugly film using ugliness to show ugliness and dressing it up with obvious casting choices and some nice 50s styling. Nominated for an Oscar? Was it the only film from Sweden in 2003? Impossible.

I have lately been trawling through Swedish movies, in an effort to watch as many as I can. I have not yet come across one that I didn't at least appreciate. The Scandinavians are remarkable story-tellers, and can teach the rest of the world a thing or two about good story-telling in film. What surprises me the most is why it is the rest of the world does not know about and applaud this film. As an examination of bullying and abuse it is extraordinary.

"Ondskan" is the story of one teenage boy's experiences of bullying - both as a perpetrator and also from the receiving end - firstly at the hands of his bitter & twisted stepfather, then in the school-yard at his high school, and lastly at an exclusive boarding school to which he is sent by his mother. It is a highly charged movie, and will be too much for some more sensitive viewers, but tells a very important story of how it is bullying is perpetrated, justified, institutionalised, and then passed on so that the behaviour continues.

There is little to place this story in an historical context other than the music and the rather odd dress of the late 1950's. The culture of the school to which Erik Ponti is sent is one in which the members of the Council - the Boss Boys - ritually bully the younger boys, and the school staff turn a blind eye. To fight back by striking a Council member is to invite expulsion, and Erik cannot risk this. Andreas Wilson has a strong presence, and is believable as Erik, and Henrik Lundstrom, who plays the sensitive Pierre, is worthy of mention also. I came across this movie because I was searching for movies featuring Gustaf Skarsgard. In "Ondskan" Skarsgard plays the student we all want to hate - the top bully - and he does it well. Later in the movie we are given a brief insight into what drives him, and the degree of pain he experiences on a daily basis. Great writing!!

The only real gripe I had while watching this film was the swimming style of Erik's character. He was meant to be a top swimmer, and yet while doing freestyle his arms barely managed to get out of the water. With a swimming stroke like that he'd never make it to be top swimmer at any school. Picky, I know, but it bothered me.

If I could give this film 12 stars I would.

I went into this movie with low expectations due to its current rating on IMDB. However, do not let that fool you. I was engrossed by this movie through out. It isn't your standard "kid goes to boarding school" movie. It is a better coming to age film than most. While it has some difficult moments it has a great story and great life lessons. Highly recommended.

Ondskan is an adorable flick, probably the best movie ever made! Ok, this may be a bit too personal, because the story applies to my personal real life, and I could almost place myself in the shoes of the main character. Nevertheless, the directing, the soundtrack, the acting, absolutely fabulous! You don't have to be a rebel nor do you have to have experienced similar things in order to enjoy this movie. It's just better if you have.

The pure love between the guy and the Finnish waitress, the jerk stepdad, the mom who's making herself helpless, the good-willed trainer, the horrible "big boys".. All perfectly pictured. I'm really out of words to describe how much I loved this movie! It's so captivating that, with every scene, I found myself saying "Come on Erik, give the lamers a lesson!"

What's sad about all this is that, these things are still experienced by several people all over the world. Probably even in Sweden, at least the revolting step-father figure.

The bottom line is, Ondskan is one of the best deeds of the contemporary Swedish Cinema, and it's a must-see for anyone who's into profound depiction of possible real life events rather than superficial Hollywood rubbish.

A well-deserved 10/10 for Ondskan!

The book by Swedish author Jan Guillou is by many considered his best. That might be true in some ways. It tells us about the author's schoolhood in a sadistic and pennalistic public school, there the author comes out as a winner, humiliating and heavily beating up his "opponents", including the stepfather.

The film version is all right, keeping all the sadism and the justified revenge. But there is a lot of ûbermensch thinking here too. The young hero, the author's alter ego, is more intelligent than Schwarzenegger or Bronson, but is he to be accepted without objection? Call that view "moral panic" if you want too; we need more of that panic.

Andreas Wilson is rather good however as the young hero. The film is intense, the battle scenes are hard to see even if you are rather used to action movies, and some of the not violent scenes are rather...well, on high school level. Worth seeing anyway.

When I started to watch this movie I didn't hear abut it before. I have no idea what about the story or who's starring in it? On another hand, this means I haven't got any preconceptions, so I can see this film in the own appears, like the director wants to show me the story and the inner wrestling of the "hero". The story seems everyday "boring" matter, but the guidelines always turnaround and a different thing happens what I thought. I can't really explain what is that thing what can grip me away, but during the movie in every minutes I have eager attention to the plot, and my hands were sweating and so on. I can recommend warmly to everybody who wants to see an everyday story in an extraordinary appearance, and an extraordinary play of the characters. Only one word can leave my mouth after the movie: "Let's see it again!"

This is my first non-Bergman Swedish movie but that's not really the point. This film has a story to tell and the Swedish context is relevant. It is the 1950s and Sweden is outgrowing its politics of eugenics and its flirtation with 'white' ideas akin to official racism in France and elsewhere in Europe and an inch from the extremes of German Nazism. Not everyone in 1950s Sweden was social democrat. There was still nostalgia for the old 'Germanic' ways.

Erik is a 16-year old boy from Stockholm brought up to grin and bear the abuse of his violent step father. At school his anger is unleashed in fights at which he's a brutal, merciless expert. He's dismissed from public school and black-listed from public education. This would be it for good, except that his mother has some wealth from her previous marriage and an inheritance she sells to finance boarding school for her son: his only chance at some form of a future.

Boarding school is a cocoon of fascist nostalgia coupled with Victorian/Edwardian notions of honours and aristocratic precedence. Discipline is administered by the senior boys who perpetrate relentless, brutal bullying on the juniors. The juniors have to be the slaves of the will of their elders. That is the rule. That is the tradition. No punishment is too unreasonable or too brutal. The only rectification will be had when the seniors graduate and replaced by the juniors who will have their turn to bully the freshmen.

What makes it especially hard for our Erik, and for us who easily empathise with this masterfully acted character is that we not only understand this boy's suffering at the hands of these bullies but we also know that he has the physical capability to beat these bullies to a pulp. They deserve to be beaten to a pulp but we all know there is no justice in this brutal regime except the grotesque fascistic tradition the school is embarrassingly proud of and that his reaction will only make matters worse, for him especially.

He therefore tries to deal with the bullying by taking a page out of Ghandi's passive resistance. That ultimately the humiliators will at some point realise that their victims have the moral right on their side and there is no need of violence to resist violence: one can and should fight back by turning the other cheek.

In this school, isolated from the political changes of Sweden that out there is outgrowing eugenics and politics of racial ranking, the laws of the land - of right of protection from abuse, of respect for privacy, of basic decency - do not seem to apply. In this school ancient, archaic notions of aristocratic 'honour' are the order of the day.

Erik fights back. And, in the school, and back home under the roof of his abusive step-father Gandhi's advice is not always enough.

A coming of age film that contrasts somewhat from the classical American formula for this genre. Though might is not always right, right may not always win unless it too resorts to violence. Erik had to. Erik could. Erik is therefore not a role model for the average 16 year old victim of bullying or at least not too much of a practical one because few can pull a punch like his.

Still, seriously worth watching.

I remember being forced to read this book in school a few years ago, and i remember how surprised i was at how good it actually was, and i must say this is a well done adaptation of the book, even though there are points where it chooses to go around the more easy way rather than spending time explaining it the hard way, but i guess that is often the case in adaptations, a book will always be more detailed, but i also must say i wouldn't have minded this movie being 30 mins longer and then more of the minor details had been explained.

But besides that this really is a good movie, the story itself is pretty well explained and the movie is paced enough for one not to get bored throughout the 2 hours the movie lasts, one thing i missed in the movie though is more focus on the romance between Marja and Erik, something that, again, is more explained in the book, it succeds half here, but it's a pretty good romance and i think the movie should have spend more time telling it, for me it somehow feels like the movie is trying to find a foot to stand on, like, sometimes it wants to be a brutal movie, sometimes it want to be moralizing, sometimes it want to be romantic and deephearted, and other times it wants to be an intelligent look into a person fighting himself, all of them succeds about 70%.

Now i think i'm going pretty hard on this movie considering to what i really thought about it, becuase i really did enjoy the movie, and i thought it was really good, and it should have taken the foreign oscar in my opinion, i think the strength of the movie is that it never becomes boring and uninteresting, the many different perspectives it focuses on is also a strength i think, even though none of them completes perfect it still keeps your curiousity towards aspects of the movie high, especially the romance in my case.

The acting in the movie is pretty decent, i don't feel anybody stands out, but all the leading actors does a pretty good job, which makes the movie spin around without awkward problems caused by the acting, it's good to see they still know how to make movies up there in sweden.

I think everybody who wants an enjoyable and entertaining film should enjoy this, the morale is there, but it doesn't work all the way through becuase there seem to be some lack of focus on it, it's not a movie that will be in your heart for weeks to come, but it'll run through your head and turn, it's a fast paced movie i think is worth checking out, i'm glad i did at least.

8/10

This is said to be one of Swedens best films. So i finally watched it.

It has a good and interesting concept. I love it takes place in the 1950s and the time period is really well made in the film. And i love the character going against the old system and stereotypes at the school. It quickly reminded me of "Young Royals (2021-2024)". Based on the plot and the characters.

But it has the excuse same problem as "Young royals". It doesn't feel really authentic. I have no clue if schools was like this and if people actually talked like this in tge 50s, But it feels so incredibly contrived and not at all realistic, at some scenes.

The directing, soundtrack and filming is pretty good, except some shaky camera movements.

Acting is fantastic!

A very intense, grotesque and heavy film.

I definitely recommend it! A good film!

To be fair, this portentous adaptation of Guillou's self-aggrandizing autobiography is good for quite a few laughs. There were many scenes where some awkward line of dialogue, combined with the clichéd characters and overly dramatic score made me double with laughter. But as a phenomenon this movie and the novel it is based on is anything but funny.

Basically, it is classic action hero stuff: it is all about showing us what a superior human being the protagonist is. He is put to a variety of tests that only serve to showcase his superhuman powers.

All Jan Guillou's fiction, from Ondskan to Arn, is variations on this theme, and the protagonists always have striking similarities to the writer himself. Most of the time his writing is quite entertaining, with lots of well-researched facts about weapons and Middle- Eastern politics thrown in for good measure.

However, this adolescent power-fantasy clashes quite badly with the realistic and mundane setting of Ondskan.

For instance, there is in the novel a storyline where Erik wears a ski-mask, vigilante style, in order to beat up his opponents without being identified. That is of course quite unrealistic -- in reality, he would be as easily identified in a ski-mask as without one.

The absurdity of it would be apparent in a movie, but in a written text it is easier to make the reader accept far-fetched events and a twisted perspective. We share Erik's view of himself as some lone avenger taking on a gangster syndicate.

In the movie, the ski-mask story is gone, but I still find it hard not to see things from a sober, civilized perspective: this is a story about some very disturbed children in a very inhumane system, but the most disturbed of them all is Erik himself. A fifteen-year old with Erik Ponti's pain-resistance and brutality is obviously mentally ill.

This is the real story of Ondskan: how an abused child turns into a monster. That, and the bad fit between Erik's view of himself and the actual reality could have been material for quite an interesting movie. Instead, we get the usual psychopath-as-role-model Hollywood fare, only slower, less fun and more hypocritical.

That the novel has been almost compulsory reading for Swedish schoolchildren for so many years is nothing less than terrifying.