Together (Tillsammans) DVD (15)

Dir: Lukas Moodysson, 2000, Sweden/Denmark/Italy, 106mins, Swedish with subtitles
Cast: Lisa Lindgren, Michael Nyqist, Emma Samuelsson, Sam Kessel

Directed by Lukas Moodysson (Fucking Amal (1998), Lilya Forever (2002)), Together tells the story of Elisabeth (Lindgren) and her two children Stefan (Kessel) and the sublime Emma Samuelsson as sullen, lonely teenager Eva, as they seek sanctuary from an abusive and alcoholic Father, Rolf (Nyqvist) in Elisabeth’s brother’s commune, ‘Tillsammans’ (Together).

The commune, complete with Scooby Doo style hippy wagon, is full of stock characters; an ethical living couple, a Stalinist, an irreverent student, a feminist who has become lesbian as a political act, a sexual libertarian whose boyfriend (Elisabeth’s brother) is growing increasingly unable to bear her manipulative cavorting, and an unfulfilled gay man. Sketched out like that you could be forgiven for thinking that this is lazy writing, but the characters are well explored and brilliantly and sympathetically acted. We follow this disparate group as they attempt and mostly fail to commune. The die-hards give up and leave as, as in life, their insistence that their way is right causes fractures and the easy going, warmer characters all go through some level of epiphany and discover themselves in a heart warming reconciliatory final scene.

Moodysson intelligently explores the balance between people of extreme views. Radicals of sex, politics, social order and ethics, are pitted against more wishy washy every day folk. The most wishy washy is Elisabeth’s brother Goran, a gentle bearded type of everyhippy who turns himself inside out to accommodate other people until he eventually and amusingly snaps, at the expense of his frisky girlfriend.

Next to the chaos of Elisabeth and Rolf’s painful relationship and the juvenile squabblings of the commune’s inhabitants, there is a gentle exploration of the maturity of children contrasted with the self-obsession of adults. Compared to the smart, funny and sensitive children, the adults are but brats. The real show stealer here is Samuelsson’s Eva, completely understated and so gently nuanced and subtle that she expresses more than any other character, hardly speaking a word. She pouts and flinches in agonised response to every little event that goes on around her. She steals the screen when she is in shot. Eva in some ways is the heart of the film. She dismisses “All adults as idiots,” and her charming relation with the equally bespectacled and awkward boy next door provides a sweet counterpoint to the desperate grapplings of the adults around them. Eva, you feel is agonisingly aware that adulthood is just around the corner.

Moodysson has given us a very heart warming, but tough film with an essentially silly, feel good ending. There is no judgement on people’s flaws or eccentricities and there are no answers as to how we should lead our lives. Together can be forgiven the stock characters and the happily ever after ending because the script, the acting and the human observation, whilst on the whole very Scandinavian, are totally honest, sublime and very very funny.

Extras:
Theatrical Trailer, Text Interview with Lukas Moodysson.

Tim Lundberg