User Reviews

This film is about the relationship between two boys growing up together in a small town in the north of Sweden. Their nickname for the town is "Vittula" (roughly translated: The P*ssy fields).

The movie contains violence, sex, nudity and rough language without having any of those ingredients taking away focus from the actual story. In my opinion, it's also rare for a movie to successfully combine comedy and drama. Here the two parts are well balanced and will give you both laughter and sadness.

However, the movie have two weak spots.

1. Since I haven't read the book, I found myself filling in blanks in the story. It isn't always clear what event follows another. Sometimes it's almost like a highlight reel of events taking place in no specific order. Maybe this is how the director intended it to be or maybe how the book is written, but this was kind of annoying for me.

2. Some actors change their accent from scene to scene, which of course take away a lot of credibility from their character. If an actor can't fake a typical northern accent of Swedish for the full lenght of the movie, it would be better if they just stick with their natural accent.

Most people I have spoken to seems to have enjoyed this movie in one way or another, maybe because the story is set so close to home and feels somewhat familiar. (I hope that this movie will be appreciated by people in Finland and in the southern parts of Sweden as well.)

Cast and crew worth to mention are: Director Reza Bagher for taking the initiative to start this project which turned out to be a nice movie (even though some of the scenes don't fit especially well into the storyline, as I mentioned before). Actors Jarmo Mäkinen, Björn Kjellman and Lennart Jähkel for great acting performances.

I rate this movie 6/10.

In the era of limited and underdeveloped means of communication, it is not easy to cope with outside influences as life at home, school and township is handled in a "historical", traditional manner. Life is hard, with lots of manual labour, thin population (but big families) and long distances do not provide versatile diversity... All this was characteristic to rural areas in Sweden where Matti and Niila had to spend their childhood and youth. Then, new music trends were brought into their lives, but its nature and consequences were not as expected in the beginning.

The cast is rather strong, includes some interesting individuals, and children/youngsters performing Matti and Niila at different ages are talented; moreover, there are versatile Finnish and Swedish actors in supporting roles. On the other hand, Populärmusik från Vittula is not a family film, especially for "decent" families, as it contains rude language, nudity and heavy drinking... But as based on the book with the same name, I am sure that the portrayal of everything is realistic.

As a movie this was pretty much the same as the book: good, but not instant classic. Though I am sure there are lots of people who will disagree with me on the book part.

For technical point of view there is nothing wrong with the flick: acting is good, directing is good, the whole packet works. It even has some pretty funny scenes in it.

My main problem was with the plot itself: this was hardly anything new under the sun. Just another nostalgic driven view of someones childhood and coming of age.

I could have given better score, but my personal favourite scene was left out. I know it wouldn't have much, actually any general plot influence, but I just would have wanted to see it in.

Nothing more to say, see it if you like the genre.

Walking into this movie just more or less accidentally, I went out 105 minutes later with another candidate to my "all times' best list". Formerly employed in movie-jobs myself, I can only say that this is a masterpiece. May be the critics about incoherent use of local dialects is right - I saw it translated anyway. But, if this is a misfit, I must say, there are hardly other minor misfits. The movie is not boring for a second, and the tough scenes are not voyeuristic like usual, but describing the characters and the environment - yes, in a tough way. Highly to be recommended to everyone who was not raised in an accomodance of McD' and Cadillacs. Very close to live, and wonderfully set into scene. Pure live, the hard way, yes, but full of real love. A must for cineastics.

This is the kind of movies we need in these days. Rock N Roll movies, now when the Hip Hop gets too much place.

The Movie is about two boys which grows up in Northern Sweden. Its the sixties and Sweden is on a era of new inventions. New roads and buildings where builted. And now Sweden need more people who can work on these projects. And we took people from Finland.

Thease two boys, one Swedish and one finish, discover the new music, Rock N Roll. And when they got 15, they started a Rock n Roll band, which was impossible before, because the people in northern Sweden is very conservative and doesn't like to buy something which they haven't used before. But thanks to their new music teacher, which comes from souther Sweden, helped them.

See this Movie!

"Populärmusik från Vittula" is a lovingly made and beautifully staged movie, brimful with really exciting, amusing, disturbing, and most of all NEW and interesting faces, folks and scenes.

Well worth seeing, but i strongly recommend to read the book before watching the film, because the book's author Mikael Niemi puts major emphasis on loving observation - his unique strength - and all time-line-bound events are connected and interwoven by the narrators's humorous, skillful reflections. While the entire novel lives on this unique subjective density, the screenplay fails to regenerate this surreal yet all-too-real atmosphere, and spawns a scrumptious roundabout of kaleidoscopic, more or less detached incidents. Partially, it even felt like someone's trying to affirm or authenticate the author's contemplations. A somewhat oblique effort, fit to entertain but also irritate the unprepared beholder.

Compared to what is called mainstream these days, "Populärmusik från Vittula" is a step in the proper direction. OK, it rides the book's wave of success, but the heck, it was simply about time for a movie like that!

Another Swedish movie about people in the North, regarded as monkeys in a zoo. This kind of "exoticism" is very cheap indeed. You are laughing about the drinking habits, disgusted about the children being beat up, laughing about the 60s, disgusted about small town prejudice and so on. It's too easy.

If you grew up in this days, you don't recognize the era. This is of course about another far away part of Sweden, but the mood of the film is too different from how it was. It's under-acted and over-acted and the guys who are performing the two young boys are only average in talent.

You can see this or avoid it. I would recommend the later alternative.

The film is a story about a boy called Matti and his friend Niila. The boys grow up in very different families in Pajala, which is located in Northern Sweden and very close to the Finnish border, in the 60s. They live in a culture that is a little in between cultures - not quite Swedish but not Finnish either. This creates the rich and amusing setting to the actual story.

Even though I read the book (which was hilarious!) before I watched the film, I thought it was a very enjoyable film. It's funny and not that pretty and mild and therefore even more humorous. Definitely worth watching!

Very disappointing! A school example of how a hilarious, funny and moving book can be made into an incoherent collection of sound and music. More or less everything is wrong: character description, portrait of the specific era, soundtrack, narrator's role, casting except for a few very good ones, setting etc etc. There is no flow and nothing keeping the project together. It is like watching a long series of sketches with a few good ones thrown in but a lot of cinematic junk food in between. The best scenes are definitely the darker ones which also stand out more prominent than in the book, whereas the funny and warm side is almost completely missing, just being referred to without any enthusiasm. Read the book instead.

Just saw the film for the fourth time, and thought I'd chip in on the discussion. It seems to me a lot of the criticism the film meets is about the incoherence of scenes, and the kaleidoscopic manuscript. Well, as it is a retrospective view upon a time long gone, I find it trustworthy and natural that the memory of the narrator is thus fragmented. That is how the mind works. And the narration is never torn, but keeps flowing. Yes, it is absurd, yes, it is grotesque, but this is what we call magic realism, a genre often attributed to south American writers. Here, the book that lays basis for the film, intelligently mixes the exotic air of magic with the harsh environment of Pajala. Enough about that. I find this one of the best examples of a successful adaption from book to film I have long seen. I do not see the bad acting that many point out. The dialects may vary, I am not Swedish and cannot tell, so I'm save from harm there. All in all, the ambiance of the film is sort of "happy in spite" and I am impressed every time. But I am a sucker for that magic realism, so bare that in mind.

9/10

I have just seen the film, and i loved it! I've read the book and it was a lot better because it had more details, but the film has a certain atmosphere of it's own that is quite magic. The way the story is told is great, and you really get involved with the film. And it is very funny as well! I emmidiately felt the urge to go see the magnificent landscapes in the film, and maybe i will some day. I loved the actors in it, Björn Kellman is always wonderful to watch, but the younger actors were great too. I liked Andreas af Enehjelm (Niila) in particular, he seems to be a very sensitive actor. Let's have more Finnish and Swedish films, the languages are beautiful and the stories go straight to the heart!

I don't get it. Why is this movie so popular here in Scandinavia? It's utter crap. I wasn't amused at all when watching this movie. The acting is decent, which is why I give the movie 2 out of 10 points. Movies are supposed to keep the viewer glued to the chair, wanting to see more, but this isn't the case with this movie. It's a boring ride from start to finish.

I understand that Scandinavian film producers want some recognition as well - but what a bad example this is. This is the reason I'm not too hyped about nordic movies. I was left with a sad feeling after watching this movie. I actually wonder how I even managed to stay awake during the time this movie lasted. Not worth watching at all. A lousy movie with a really boring story to boot.

The movie came out here in our city before 9 months but only some small cinemas showed it. It wasn't easy to find a cinema so I waited till the DVD was out. I rented the DVD last night and I have to admit that I wanted to watch that movie since over 4 months but never found it at my place. I laughed, I felt disgusted, I had silent moments and maybe even a small tear dropped out of my eye ;). And that is what I expect from a good movie - it has to touch me inside and make me wanting to talk about it. The movie has many raw scenes but at the same time also subtle moments. It is about friendship, become and being a man and follow your dreams - it is raw and poetic! And I saw it today again to get every detail of that wonderful movie.

While this movie is trying to be as funny in a grotesque way as "In China they eat dogs" and to express the desperation of "Noi Albinoi" at the same time, it fails to do so in both. I haven't read the book yet, but if the movie is as close to the book as the reviewers say, it's not worth the while either:

Shallow characters, loose story, no real message, no scenery, no cool soundtrack(opposed to what you might expect from the title,),as hard as i try, i just can't find any reason to recommend this movie. It will always remain a miracle to me, how some movies manage to get a "hype up" for nothing. If u want to see a good movie from "up there", try one of the two mentioned above instead and save the money.

And highly so. I haven't read the book, nonetheless the whole setting seemed very promising. But after a few moments of funny and/or enthralling and well-filmed moments and motives, the whole thing just fell apart. Focus on the music and character development was lost almost completely, drowned in bodily fluids (spilled a little bit too freely for my taste). There are some scenes worth watching, but most of the humorous motives are dragged to a slow death, and the serious ones aren't handled very well enough to give identification or deep insight to the characters.

As an illustration for the book, the movie may work, especially for those born in North Sweden or Suomi, but not as a stand-alone comedy or drama, because it tries to be both the coming-of-age-with-a-little-help-from-the-Beatles-drama and the life-in-North-Sweden-is-hard-but-hilarious-comedy and ends up being a very weak mixture of them.

This felt like if you haven't read the book, you are not invited to understand this movie! This portrays the north north Swedes as the drunkest people in the world, and they might challenge that with the north north people in Finland. This movie is far away from other Swedish movie like My Life as a Dog, Slingshot, As It is in Heaven and even MasDevils. Scenes comes and goes, most of them are bizarre, grotesque, sick, non-relevant and makes no sense to the rest of the story, since most threads is left in the air anyway. Björn Kjellman speaks Skånska as if he was educated at Jan Malmsjö School of fake Skånska academy, and many actors speak as if they forgot what movie they are in and wanders in and out of dialect. Any Åsa-Nisse or Janne Vängman movie when he says "Tjo Flöjt", or Three Stooges, or even Teen-agers from Outer Space has a better story thread than this awful mess.

Avoid this movie!!! This is not what it sounds like! It's not a warm and funny or bittersweet coming of age movie!

I loved the book, it was warm and brought you to the world of another universe. It was fun and sad. It was growing pains told with wit, just beautifully written. I couldn't see the movie when it was released now almost 20 years ago because I was afraid it would spoil the other universe. I was right.