Stöten

Competent and exciting b/w crime drama by the talented Swedish director Hasse Ekman. "Stöten" ( The Heist) is an unusually fierce and extensive film for Swedish standards. The city of Stockholm adds interesting environments to the action. Excellent cast and cinematography. Gunnar Hellström delivers a versatile portray of the fugitive criminal Erik. A lost, lovelorn and sensitive nature. His fugitive partner Janne (Tor Isedal) is an alcoholic and sadistic desperado. Maude Adelson interpret an interesting and vivid portrait of a young women, dreaming of a life together with Erik. Apart from these three, the film is stuffed with exciting characters. The film is burdened by the typical jazz score which so often filled the soundtrack in European criminal cinema in the sixties.

When I first read the topic, of course I thought about Stan Kubrick's THE KILLING, a heist taking place on a horse race facility. But the result is far from that. It is however interesting to watch a film noir from Sweden, and heavily influenced by the American or European features too, with a nearly always present jazzy score. Not a bad movie, but not action packed enough. I don't regret to have seen it, and I am still astonished to have caught it on Netflix Anyway, I am glad to have seen it.