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16 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Good - even when compared to the book, 7 November 2004
9/10
Author: minna_h from Finland

The film is a story about a boy called Matti and his friend Niila. The boys grow up in very different families in Pajala, which is located in Northern Sweden and very close to the Finnish border, in the 60s. They live in a culture that is a little in between cultures - not quite Swedish but not Finnish either. This creates the rich and amusing setting to the actual story.

Even though I read the book (which was hilarious!) before I watched the film, I thought it was a very enjoyable film. It's funny and not that pretty and mild and therefore even more humorous. Definitely worth watching!

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10 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Read the book first!, 24 January 2006
9/10
Author: kallepister from North by Northwest

"Populärmusik från Vittula" is a lovingly made and beautifully staged movie, brimful with really exciting, amusing, disturbing, and most of all NEW and interesting faces, folks and scenes.

Well worth seeing, but i strongly recommend to read the book before watching the film, because the book's author Mikael Niemi puts major emphasis on loving observation - his unique strength - and all time-line-bound events are connected and interwoven by the narrators's humorous, skillful reflections. While the entire novel lives on this unique subjective density, the screenplay fails to regenerate this surreal yet all-too-real atmosphere, and spawns a scrumptious roundabout of kaleidoscopic, more or less detached incidents. Partially, it even felt like someone's trying to affirm or authenticate the author's contemplations. A somewhat oblique effort, fit to entertain but also irritate the unprepared beholder.

Compared to what is called mainstream these days, "Populärmusik från Vittula" is a step in the proper direction. OK, it rides the book's wave of success, but the heck, it was simply about time for a movie like that!

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15 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
Funny, 30 September 2004
7/10
Author: Andy Ash from Sweden

This film is about the relationship between two boys growing up together in a small town in the north of Sweden. Their nickname for the town is "Vittula" (roughly translated: The P*ssy fields).

The movie contains violence, sex, nudity and rough language without having any of those ingredients taking away focus from the actual story. In my opinion, it's also rare for a movie to successfully combine comedy and drama. Here the two parts are well balanced and will give you both laughter and sadness.

However, the movie have two weak spots.

1. Since I haven't read the book, I found myself filling in blanks in the story. It isn't always clear what event follows another. Sometimes it's almost like a highlight reel of events taking place in no specific order. Maybe this is how the director intended it to be or maybe how the book is written, but this was kind of annoying for me.

2. Some actors change their accent from scene to scene, which of course take away a lot of credibility from their character. If an actor can't fake a typical northern accent of Swedish for the full lenght of the movie, it would be better if they just stick with their natural accent.

Most people I have spoken to seems to have enjoyed this movie in one way or another, maybe because the story is set so close to home and feels somewhat familiar. (I hope that this movie will be appreciated by people in Finland and in the southern parts of Sweden as well.)

Cast and crew worth to mention are: Director Reza Bagher for taking the initiative to start this project which turned out to be a nice movie (even though some of the scenes don't fit especially well into the storyline, as I mentioned before). Actors Jarmo Mäkinen, Björn Kjellman and Lennart Jähkel for great acting performances.

I rate this movie 6/10.

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6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
The life of two young boys in the outskirts of Sweden, 7 July 2005
8/10
Author: ronza from Copenhagen, Denmark

I have just seen the film, and i loved it! I've read the book and it was a lot better because it had more details, but the film has a certain atmosphere of it's own that is quite magic. The way the story is told is great, and you really get involved with the film. And it is very funny as well! I emmidiately felt the urge to go see the magnificent landscapes in the film, and maybe i will some day. I loved the actors in it, Björn Kellman is always wonderful to watch, but the younger actors were great too. I liked Andreas af Enehjelm (Niila) in particular, he seems to be a very sensitive actor. Let's have more Finnish and Swedish films, the languages are beautiful and the stories go straight to the heart!

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7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Wonderful movie from Sweden, 1 October 2006
9/10
Author: Maria from Germany

The movie came out here in our city before 9 months but only some small cinemas showed it. It wasn't easy to find a cinema so I waited till the DVD was out. I rented the DVD last night and I have to admit that I wanted to watch that movie since over 4 months but never found it at my place. I laughed, I felt disgusted, I had silent moments and maybe even a small tear dropped out of my eye ;). And that is what I expect from a good movie - it has to touch me inside and make me wanting to talk about it. The movie has many raw scenes but at the same time also subtle moments. It is about friendship, become and being a man and follow your dreams - it is raw and poetic! And I saw it today again to get every detail of that wonderful movie.

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8 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
storslaget, 21 July 2006
Author: jk-197 from Germany

Walking into this movie just more or less accidentally, I went out 105 minutes later with another candidate to my "all times' best list". Formerly employed in movie-jobs myself, I can only say that this is a masterpiece. May be the critics about incoherent use of local dialects is right - I saw it translated anyway. But, if this is a misfit, I must say, there are hardly other minor misfits. The movie is not boring for a second, and the tough scenes are not voyeuristic like usual, but describing the characters and the environment - yes, in a tough way. Highly to be recommended to everyone who was not raised in an accomodance of McD' and Cadillacs. Very close to live, and wonderfully set into scene. Pure live, the hard way, yes, but full of real love. A must for cineastics.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Rock'n roll accordion!, 10 August 2006
9/10
Author: Sune Urth (suneurth@hotmail.com) from Copenhagen, Denamrk

Just saw the film for the fourth time, and thought I'd chip in on the discussion. It seems to me a lot of the criticism the film meets is about the incoherence of scenes, and the kaleidoscopic manuscript. Well, as it is a retrospective view upon a time long gone, I find it trustworthy and natural that the memory of the narrator is thus fragmented. That is how the mind works. And the narration is never torn, but keeps flowing. Yes, it is absurd, yes, it is grotesque, but this is what we call magic realism, a genre often attributed to south American writers. Here, the book that lays basis for the film, intelligently mixes the exotic air of magic with the harsh environment of Pajala. Enough about that. I find this one of the best examples of a successful adaption from book to film I have long seen. I do not see the bad acting that many point out. The dialects may vary, I am not Swedish and cannot tell, so I'm save from harm there. All in all, the ambiance of the film is sort of "happy in spite" and I am impressed every time. But I am a sucker for that magic realism, so bare that in mind.

9/10

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
rebellious, ludicrous, crazy, nostalgic, grotesque, surreal, coarse, 25 March 2006
7/10
Author: aileenT from Germany

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

---mild spoilers---

the 1960s. in vittula, a village in the nowhere land between Sweden and finland, the archaic, very rough customs of a traditional men's society prevail. here it is essential to learn at an early age what it means to be a real man: able to hold liquor, rowdy and taciturn if possible.everyday life consists of work and ritual self-destructive recreational activities, which almost always end in contests and measures of strength: whether arm wrestling, visits to the sauna or sex - it's all inspired by the boozing of hard liquor. life at the edge of civilization. forms of art, such as pop music are quickly labeled "soft" and "unmanly". so matti and niila, two teenage rock fans, and the main characters of the movie, considered weaklings and aesthetes don't exactly lead an easy childhood in vittula. with the support of their determined music teacher from the south of Sweden they organize a band that, with changing success, does it's best to sound like their idol's and maybe even look like them. not an easy task, considering their first the circumstances. sooner or later, that much is clear, the two of them want to get out of this provincial wilderness.

when mikael niemi's novel was first published it became an immediate success: in Sweden more than 750.000 copies were sold and in the meantime the book has appeared in more than 20 countries. director reza bagher shortened the episodic stories and condensed them dramatically laying the emphasis on the friendship between the narrator and the neighbor's boy, who especially suffers from his father's radical up-bringing methods.

'populaermusik fran vittula' impresses with its authentic description of the rough life north of the arctic circle, it's baroque delight in telling and relating and it's satiric portrait of orgies, drinking-bouts and sauna-excesses. but on the other hand excessive consume of alcohol, degenerating primitivity, apathetic traditionalism and crude sexuality are only a few of the things that are embellished as the background of an erratically directed 'coming-of-age'-story.

one thing however is certain: this is a rebellious, ludicrous, crazy but also nostalgic story, filled with grotesque, surreal and also coarse humor.

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0 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
A very poor movie, 6 May 2007
2/10
Author: puputommy from Alta, Norway

I don't get it. Why is this movie so popular here in Scandinavia? It's utter crap. I wasn't amused at all when watching this movie. The acting is decent, which is why I give the movie 2 out of 10 points. Movies are supposed to keep the viewer glued to the chair, wanting to see more, but this isn't the case with this movie. It's a boring ride from start to finish.

I understand that Scandinavian film producers want some recognition as well - but what a bad example this is. This is the reason I'm not too hyped about nordic movies. I was left with a sad feeling after watching this movie. I actually wonder how I even managed to stay awake during the time this movie lasted. Not worth watching at all. A lousy movie with a really boring story to boot.

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0 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Few laughs amidst of some long biopic mass, 28 January 2005
5/10
Author: Enchorde from Sweden

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

** HERE MIGHT BE SPOILERS **

Matti reminisces about his youth with best friend Niila. In the village of Pajala in the far north of Sweden they grew up and experienced their personal adventures. Now, to me this movie is a long biopic of Matti's youth, full of stereotypes (how accurate they may be, I have no way to tell), with some funny episodes now and then. It may be more funny or interesting for someone who actually grew up there and then (or in some similar place), but for me, not having done that, it just wasn't. The general plot and story was very loosely connected and some scenes or subplots actually seemed unnecessary, not contributing in any other way than extending the movie a few minutes. However, good performances from the actors and in some sense an interesting view. However, for entertainment... not that good.

5/10

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