Swedish Fest on TV

Oh my goodness, we’ve had a Svensk-fest on SBS television over the last few days. There have been a few films and one documentary which I’ve noticed with a Swedish connection.

It all started with the film Harry’s Daughters which I tried to “get into”. As the film’s title implies, it’s about a man who has two daughters. They’re both expecting babies around the same time. One of the daughter’s gives birth to a child, while the other is still-born. I have a vague recollection about seeing it before, and not really getting into it. And I didn’t really get into it when it screened again on Thursday night (though I watched it Friday on replay).

And then last Friday night, there was a documentary about rituals and stuff in Europe. One of the highlights for me was a discussion about the Sami, the indigenous people of Sweden, Norway and Denmark. What captured my attention most was the landscape, as the bloke went to Northern Sweden to meet with some of the Sami.

I LOVED looking at the darkness. At one point the presenter referred to the darkness when it was only lunchtime. So far, I’ve experienced Sweden in summer and spring, but I’ve never experienced “the darkness” of winter in the far north. Gosh, it made me want to experience it, watching the documentary. That, and the recent conversation with a colleague who told me when she returned home to Sweden at Christmas, the sun is likely to rise at 10am and set at 1pm. I really want to experience that stuff.

And then tonight, we’ve had the double-offering of the Swedish vampire film “Låt den rätte komma in” (Let The Right One In) on SBS 1 at 10.00pm or the Swedish thriller, “Exit” on SBS 2 at 9.30pm.

As I’d seen Låt den rätte komma in before, I elected for the latter which was described in the program guide as…

A tense and exhilarating thriller played out in Stockholm’s world of finance. Thomas Skepphult is a partner in Nova Investments, which seven years earlier saw an employee blow his head off with a shotgun when he was asked to leave the company. Now a ghost begins to haunt Thomas as he finds himself being hunted by the police, suspected of the murder of his partner Wilhelm Rahmberg.

I was obviously feeling a bit tired – or maybe it’s just middle-age? – because I nodded off. I find this especially surprising, since the film featured major Swedish hottie, Alexander Skarsgård. Anyway, I’ve copied it to my ‘puter and will try to watch it on the plane to Beijing. As I woke up just when it was finishing, I flipped over to watch the end of “Låt den rätte komma in” instead.

It’s been an interesting Saturday. As I mentioned, my family now uses Skype, so we had a Skype video call today which was fun. Why didn’t we have this years ago? I’ve also spent some time working out which clothes I want to take with me on my trip and I’ve done the washing accordingly. Oh, and a bit of house cleaning. There’s nothing quite like coming home to a fresh, clean house, is there?