The title is a misnomer ,for the story spans the whole WW2 till the allies' victory.
"1939" is essentially a chronicle ,in a country that maintained their policy of neutrality ,but breached it in favor of the German , later the allies ;these troubled time are seen through the eyes of a young blond girl (Helene Egehund ) and the best thing in this sometimes sprawling slow-moving work is the depiction of a female friendship ,a subject much less broached than the male one) ; the marvelous Helena Bergström almost steals the show from the principal ,and although their relationship is pure and platonic, it sets a pattern for today's women who live with a child (when Peter is stricken by croup ,both girls show that the baby has two moms: when Berit speaks to the thespian , in the background , the director does not use the usual code).
Churchill once said that the country "played both sides for profit ";it is certainly true for Bengt's family whose business with the Germans was thriving but who was searching new markets when the Nazi 's star faded ;the sames goes for the owner of the chic restaurant where "Arbeit macht frei ". But it also happened in occupied countries where there were collaborators too.
Too bad the other side ,represented by the heroine's cousin ,a socialist who 's sent to a labor camp ,is underwritten .
Bengt , Annika 's husband certainly embraced the Nazi's obnoxious ideology ,when he lets his friends check if his wife is really an Aryan .Annika will always be an intruder in her family-in-law (the scene of the restaurant where she works and where her future father-in-law snubs her is revealing); when she leaves him and Berit does not let the brute in , they take a rebel stand at a time feminism did not exist ;as I wrote , the Berit/Annika relationship is the raison d'être of the film .
