Miraklet i Gullspång

I see how this happened.

A surprising coincidence sparks an idea for a doco, that will slowly reveal itself. Except it doesn't, because really nothing much happens here.

I have worked on BBC documentaries that have been dropped because you realise the story simply doesn't warrant continuing. I thing the director's increasingly shrill interjections in the latter parts suggest that they are aware of this also.

When I think of how high the bar is set by Storyville with work like 'The Gatekeepers', 'Navalny', 'Raising a School Shooter' and 'I Will Be Murdered', I am astonished this was screened in the Storyville slot, if you miss the last 20 minutes, don't worry, nothing happens.

A great movie if you like mystery movies with documentary vibes. The director did a great work with the material she had, also working with normal people has no experience and getting this final result tells you everything about the amazing work done by the director and how much effort. The movie will always make you wonder and question everything specially when it starts to play with you back and forward. I was lucky to watch the movie and have a Q&A with the director after. I think this movie can continue with a follow up in the future which the director said it is always a possibility, also she added that there are some future projects will build on this story but adding some fiction which I think will be interesting to see. Finally she mentioned that movie took 5 years of working which is wow.

From the first scene with the director demanding that her subjects "perform" in a certain way rather than just tell the story as it happened to them, alarm bells went off for me.

I was initially intrigued by the promise of some kind of miracle happening, an almost unbelievably serendipitous meeting of long-lost family... Sounded amazing until it wasn't.

So many questions arose that were not only never answered, the answers were never pursued! Questions arose, floated in the air, then left to drop with no explanation.

Some reviews claim this is a brilliant documentary... Maybe they watched a different version where intelligent people encountered an intriguing mystery, pursued answers and brought it all to a satisfying, fully explained conclusion. But that was not what happened in this pile of confusion and frustration.

An utter waste of time.

Pointless story told in an overly dramatic way by a filmmaker who can't handle when their project takes a disappointing turn. It feels like the cast are used as puppets and in the end nothing gets resolved. Don't waste your time watching this. There's no mystery in the filmmaking, only cheap tricks to build some suspense to keep you watching. But it never gets truly interesting because the story lacks substance. It only exists in the head of the main characters and the filmmaker. The problem of this documentary is that it's constructed in a way that emphasises excitement of the story when there is none. Why not slow down and let people interact on their own?

Brilliant documentary. Fascinating tale. Beautifully shot. I feel so lucky to have stumbled across this via BBC storyville. It definitely makes me want to make a documentary of my own. Not sure what the other guy who left a review is on about. The story is strong and the director does a great job of following the organic twists and turns that come up. Ticks all the boxes for what a great documentary should be. Does a great job have handling family drama in an appropriate way. Definitely worth a watch if you can get it. Well done to everyone involved in this film, you should be very proud of yourselves.