Tre solar

Yet another failure for swedish cinema! There should be no question that Sweden has the most pretentious and arrogant film-makers in the world. They simply don´t make the films people want to see, they make this crap instead. Which would be perfectly alright if part of the films budget didn´t come from tax money, which it does!

This is a sorry mess of a film. The only hint that a quite substantial amount of money (in Swedish terms) has gone into this project is the technical aspects. The photo is not too bad and the music is tolerable. Also the cast are almost all swedish "stars". Unfortunately most of these actors seem to think the movie is as silly as i do, sometimes they come terribly close to making fun of the movie.

And there is actually a lot of things to make fun of. First off the acting is mostly terrible. Only the lead actress (Lena Endre) really seems to take this film seriously. The rest act like they´re out on a masquerade or something, talking like it´s 2003 instead of 1300-something. Also the actors look silly, especially due to the horrible whigs they are wearing throughout the movie.

But most of this could have been forgiven if not for the one most fatal flaw. Namely the total lack of a decent script. Seriously this movie is about nothing. Mostly it´s just people riding back and forth through a desolate landscape. The story is... nothing really. Which ultimately makes this film utterly pointless.

This is truly a 1/10.

The criticism this film has received is totally unwarranted. One Swedish critic dubbed it the "turkey of the year", which is unnecessarily cruel and absurd. I have seen many other films that I would consider much worse. This leads me to wonder if the critique is against the movie itself or the people who created it.

Tre Solar has an interesting story line. It revolves around how people react to times of crisis and change. It is looks at religion, class, and gender roles. Set in the middle ages, the lead is a strong female character (Hannah). She rescues her husband and several others, on a journey to reunite her family. The story emphasizes through numerous examples that Hannah is unafraid and willing to do anything it takes, even sacrifice herself, for the ones she loves.

I think this was a very ambitious project. The setting (in the Middle Ages) and movement through the film make it a challenge, not to mention the topics it presents. The film is not as smooth as a big budget film. However it is an interesting story and the southern Swedish landscapes create a beautiful setting.

Anyone who only focuses on the wigs, obviously missed the point of this film.

Tre Solar takes place in Sweden just as the terrible plague hits the country, Hanna, a mother of two children, is awaiting the return of her husband Ulf who has been away for four years, fighting a war for god, suddenly gets the message that her husband is returning in a few days. She heads off to meet him, not aware of the plague. This is the beginning of an dangerous journey through the leftovers of the plague, a nasty killing-cult and a crazy barber in the search for her husband.

This movie goes deeper than just being entertaining, its about people who have lost everything finding comfort in each other, and how people act to save their own skin when endangered. I actually enjoyed the entire movie, finding it both funny and scary. It has some pretty gross scenes, not by visual images but what you imagine they have been going through. Tre Solar leaves a lot of room for you to imagine, normally i hate this kind of filmmakeing but in this case its actually more effective.

The acting is superb! The elite of Swedish actors is casted, I don't think it would have been all that great with another casting. Kjell Bergqvist and Rolf Lassgård are the hearts of the movie even though Rolf only has a small role. Lena Endre pulls through all the way making a believable character. Almost every newspaper in Sweden gave this movie a bad review, I can't see why. This is actually a GOOD movie and the most interesting work of art coming out of Swedish filmstudios in a long time. Well worth seeing!

7/10

Maybe one has to be Swedish to fully appreciate Tre Solar. Understanding the words is not enough. In the making of this film one could have chosen between fantasy and realism. Apparently writer and director Richard Hobert went for realism. The sets, the cast, the acting and the costumes are all convincing enough. But then his heroine Hanna (Endre) acts like a serious anachronism. She is a modern day Swedish woman with none of the taboo or restrain that medieval patriarchate put on women. While the story runs from AD to BC, modern Swedish film-making often deems it necessary to be vulgar and offensive to make a point. Though Hoberts script is mild in this respect (from Swedish point of view), its arrogance may still be enough to cause contempt. To paraphrase a Swedish idiom; "At least two of the three suns come down like pancake." In script and in ambition. There are many really poor films being made. This is not one of them. This one is medieval and plain mediocre... Though we have to acknowledge its potential.

This was the first Swedish movie (except Josef Fares' movies and Vuxna Människor) that I saw from the beginning to the end. Not because it was exciting or incredibly interesting, but because our extremely boring Swedish teacher forced my class to see it.

After have seen Tre Solar I have also come to the conclusion that she also had extremely bad taste.

Why Tre Solar is awful: 1. The script was probably printed on an A3-paper, there are approximately 3 lines in this movie. 2. The props is horrible, maybe because of the low budget or a lack of inspiration. 3. The actors are showing a complete lack of knowledge about acting.

All of this results in Tre Solar being an excruciating horrible and sad, sad movie.

It is also sad to see that splendid actors such as Rolf Lassgård and Rikard Wolf chose to participate in this movie.