Vingar av glas

'Vingar av glas' is one of the most recent Swedish movies describing the life of the 'new Swedes' and their situation in society.

This movie is about a girl called Nazli, exquisitely performed by actress Sara Sommerfeld. Nazli's dad is a rather conservative muslim who wants Nazli to marry the son of the father's friend. Nazli however has no interest of getting married, she wants to live like a normal Swedish teenager, which means going out a lot, partying, etc.

This is the 'plot' of the movie, even though things get more intense when Nazli hooks up with Johan (played by Alexander Skarsgård, son of Stellan Skarsgård). Johan hasn't got a job, is in financial trouble and is something of a small 'thug'. Naturally, Nazli's dad does not approve of the young couple and a series of family conflicts begin.

If you've seen a few Swedish movies on this topic before, there isn't really anything new for you to find here, the story is rather basic, which doesn't mean it isn't interesting at all, and the performance of the two main characters make this movie well worth seeing in my opinion.

In the movie "Vingar av glas" (Wings of glass)we meet Nazli, nicely performed by Sara Sommerfeld. Her family is from Iran, but since she has lived in Sweden all her life she's feeling rather Swedish, which of course causes conflicts with the traditions of Islam. Her father Abbas has one primary mission in life, and that is to marry his daughters to good persian men, just as the traditions say. Nazli and the father live thru enormous crisis when she meets Johan, a good old Swedish party animal with pilots, leather jacket and hangy pants. Abbas frenetically tries to get her interested in her cousin Hamid, but mostly she is disgusted of him, and later she hates him.

So what can you say? The movie is engaging and probably made for the youth. It's all about a problem in Swedish society, a more common problem than most of us think, I guess. To deliver the message director Reza Bagher has filled out the plot with a lot of warm humour and typical Swedish teenage phenomenons to keep the engagement alive thru out the movie. All actors, most of them unknown to a Swedish audience, do a great job - where did they all come from?

Vingar av glas is one of the best Swedish films in recent years. It is funny, sad, uplifting, heartbreaking. As Jalla! Jalla! this film centers around arranged marriages, but the two movies treat the topic differently. Jalla! Jalla! is a comedy while Vingar av glas is a comedy drama. The latter is also the better film of the two since it does bring up serious aspects of being a Swedish teenager with immigrant parents.

I have never thought Alexander Skarsgård is a good actor. However, in this film he delivers a fine performance. Sara Sommerfeld and Said Oveissi are also great. (7/10)

Excellent new trend in Swedish cinema, drama/comedy of the clash between cultures. Have got more than one thing in common with Josef Fares´ "Jalla! Jalla!" (Sweden) and Damien O'Donnell´s "East is east" (UK). Greater depth, and more nuances, in "Vingar av glas", while "Jalla! Jalla" is the funnier and more charming. "East is east", while still a good film, can not quite compete.

Nazli, an 18 year old girl with Persian origin, tries to break away from her father who has decided that she should marry her older cousin. She falls in love with a Swedish guy, something that her father dislikes and tries to prevent. Director Reza Baggher has said that this movie was inspired by "Romeo and Juliet", but the parallels are few and the differences aren't especially good either. Sara Sommerfeld does her best to help this mostly hopeless script, but that doesn't help. How much I tried to find good things in this movie, I couldn't and gave up. The directing is poor and the cinematography is rather bad. And what did the title ("Wings of Glass" translated into English) have to do with the happenings? Rating: 4/10