Together

Colour, 35mm
Sweden, 2000, 106 min
Section: Horizons - Awarded Films

Synopsis

It’s 1975. Elizabet takes her two children and leaves her husband. She has decided to no longer suffer her husband’s aggression nor her stifling role as a housewife. Her brother Göran, who lives in Stockholm in a community called Together, provides a roof over their heads. The community’s strange members, living in common, shock not only their neighbours but Elizabet’s kids as well. After initial scepticism and mistrust, however, the original and new members of the household manage to understand and help each other, and they confirm their new friendship at a big football match held in a snowy garden. Once again Moodysson addresses the themes of love, friendship, sexual freedom and, this time, politics. There are songs, too: “Love Hurts” by Nazareth and ABBA’s “S.O.S.” The movie has received numerous awards including Best Director at Gent, Best Screenplay, Director, and Actor (Michael Nyqvist) at Gijón, and the Special Jury Prize from a festival in Paris.

About the director

Lukas Moodysson (b. 1969, Malmö, Sweden) attended courses in direction at the Dramatiska Institutet and at age 17 published his first collection of poetry, followed by stories and other poetry collections. His feature debut, Show Me Love, was very well received by audiences and critics alike. At the 1999 Karlovy Vary IFF it won the Special Jury Prize and the Audience Award, while the European Academy nominated it for Best Film of the Year. Moodysson co-directed the popular Swedish series The New Country, and Together is his second feature. Selected films: Showdown in the Underworld (1995), Talk (1997), Show Me Love (1998), Together (2000).