Bara prata lite

Talk is a short film made in 1997. The protagonist is Birger, a lonely old man. He can't stand loneliness and is always looking for someone to talk to, but without success. He tries to talk to the woman sitting next to him on the bus, but she doesn't take him up on his offer, and he loses her no matter what he says. He also goes out of his way to visit the factory where he retired to talk to his colleagues, but is annoying. On top of this, the canteen staff remembers his name wrongly. He tries to relate to people, but his loneliness only grows.

The film focuses on loneliness, and Birger's loneliness is well portrayed; by portraying Birger's loneliness in a straightforward manner, the pain and fear of loneliness was more palpable. I also felt that the interactions between Birger and the people he speaks to are very realistic and helps the viewer to understand the loneliness Birger feels.

A man lives alone. Although he has already retired from company, he talks to people that he is working at the company. And he goes to the company every day. He telephones to some people at random to talk. One day, a missionary comes his house. And the man let her come into his room. The man has nothing to do and nobody to talk with. He is isolated, but he wants to control people. This film depicts a human nature affected by isolation. You can see his real nature as the plot develops. We don't know what triggers an explosion of other people's feeling. His real nature is revealed by meeting the missionary. I think it is scary but interesting. I like this film.

In this short film, the main character is a middle-aged man. When I watch this man, I got a little frustrated. Why? At first, I thought he wants someone who needs him, but his way is too far from that easy simple wish. I think that he wants to control someone. Every time and everywhere, I encountered that kind of people who are always middle-aged men, sometimes mid-aged women and little children. Those people try to bully someone who was weaker than them. Although there is exception, I think people should be equal to each other basically. So this main character is an offensive person. However, turning to myself, am I sometimes like those people? When I watch this, I was frightened that I possibly hurt others in the future when I get older than now.

An old man sits on the seat next to a girl student on a bus. His name is Birger Andersson. He talks to her. But she does not actively talk with him. He says that he works a good company 'Volvo'. Actually he goes to the company to work. However, he is ignored by colleagues. Even the cook of the dining room does not communicate him. He is alone. He feels lonely so much. How much does he feel lonely? I image his loneliness; however, my image is not more than his loneliness. After he returns his home, one girl comes to his house. I am surprised that an old and a lonely man chooses action. I am also surprised by her action. Recently, aging society is accelerating in developed countries. This movie perhaps give a lot of people aging society's problems and makes people think about many positive or negative products which aging society create. I also am thought about aging society and single life with loneliness of old people by this movie. This movie is able to say the film that gives the society of the problem with the surprise to people who see.

Birger works at Volvo and tries to talk to people as he gets the bus to work. However he doesn't work at Volvo anymore as he has retired but has nothing to do but hang around. His loneliness is very hard for him and he is grateful when a knock on the door brings a girl preaching about Hare Krishna to his home. He invites her in but his desire for even a conversation is intimidating to her.

The title of this film in English is 'Talk' and it sums up the content pretty well even if the film goes further than it should have done. In essence the film is quite moving and very real as we see Birger struggling to find anyone who will spend time with him. At my job we have a similar guy who retired years ago but continues to hang around even though many just feel sorry for him – this film has a similar guy in the lead. He tries to talk on the bus and, even in the early scene before we know much about him, he seems lonely and desperate. The film extends this idea well but, in the last few minutes it goes somewhere that I didn't expect and didn't fit with the tangible reality that I felt it had built up till that point.

This is a complaint but it is not one that takes away what it had done in the 10 minutes or so up till this point. The character of Birger is well written but succeeds because of very good delivery from Ljunggren. His natural and pained performance is spot on and he is the cornerstone of the film. Frode is annoying and the film doesn't treat her very well but it's easy not to really notice her part in the end of the film as Ljunggren is pretty dominant.

Overall this is a great little film that blows it a bit at the end by losing touch with the reality that it had set up so well – but this is not enough to make this a bad short film, just a lesser one than it should have been. But the material, the direction and Birger makes it well worth seeing.