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Evil
Region 1 DVD Cover
Directed by	Mikael Håfström
Produced by	Ingemar Leijonborg
Written by	Jan Guillou Hans Gunnarsson Mikael Håfström
Starring	Andreas Wilson Gustaf Skarsgård Jesper Salén
Music by	Francis Shaw
Release date(s)	2003
Running time	114 minutes
Country	Sweden
IMDb profile

Evil (Ondskan) is an Academy Award nominated 2003 Swedish movie, directed by Mikael Håfström, based on Jan Guillou's autobiographical book Ondskan from 1981.

The film is set in a private boarding school in the year 1959 and the theme is violence. The film stars Andreas Wilson as Erik, the main character. Other actors include Gustaf Skarsgård, Kjell Bergqvist and Björn Granath.

Erik Ponti is a sixteen year old boy who faces a lot of violence in his life. At school, he and his gang lend money to other students at high interest, resulting in a beating if they don't pay the money back in time; several teachers maltreat students that don't behave (in the book; in the movie it is not explained so widely). At home he lives with his sadistic stepfather and his mother.

When Erik and his gang are caught stealing records from stores, but because of the loose kind of loyalty in the gang, Erik gets the entire blame, resulting in his expulsion from school (again, in the book; in the movie he's just shown fighting with other students). But circumstances allow him to matriculate into a private boarding school, Stjärnsberg, where he gets a new chance to continue his studies. Erik decides to try and break away from his earlier violent lifestyle.

But Stjärnsberg isn't as nice and friendly as it seems initially. Erik has to face new kinds of violence in this school; from upperclassmen and members of the school council instead of teachers. In school a system called "kamratuppfostran" ("schoolmate upbringing") is in place; a code name for a violent kind of bullying directed especially at nonconforming students, ostensibly to keep discipline and order in school. Erik, being the kind of person that won't accept injustices, quickly becomes the main target.

In the movie, ondskan (the evil) may be perceived as Erik himself (as bullying other students prior to his departure to Stjärnsberg), as his stepfather (who beats Erik on every occasion), as the indifference of the teachers at Stjärnsberg, or as "kamratuppfostran", which are represented by Otto Silverhielm and Gustaf Dahlén.

Note: in the movie, Silverhielm is not portrayed as being truly evil, it's rather that his colleagues make him appear so, as Silverhielm apparently wants to give Erik a chance to avoid confrontations with Dahlén.

The film was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category in the year 2004.

• Ondskan was Andreas Wilson's first movie. He was chosen out of 120 people who wanted to be cast as Erik Ponti.
• Received a nomination for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003.

• Andreas Wilson - Erik Ponti
• Henrik Lundström - Pierre Tanguy
• Gustaf Skarsgård - Otto Silverhielm
• Linda Zilliacus - Marja
• Jesper Salén - Dalén
• Filip Berg - Johan
• Johan Rabaeus - Erik's stepfather
• Marie Richardson - Erik's mother
• Magnus Roosmann - Tosse Berg, a gymnasist
• Ulf Friberg - Tranströmer, a teacher
• Lennart Hjulström - Lindblad, the headmaster of Stjärnsberg
• Mats Bergman - Melander, the history teacher
• Kjell Bergqvist - Ekengren, the attorney
• Björn Granath - the headmaster
• Fredrik af Trampe - von Schenken

• Ondskan at the Internet Movie Database

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