One of these paper-pushers is Gosta Engzell (Henrik Dorsin), a milquetoaster who’s perfectly fine with ignoring the visa applications under the urgings of the censor who makes sure the newspapers don’t say anything bad about Hitler or his crew of shitbirds, and his boss, Soderstrom (Jonas Karlsson), who dismisses the Final Solution intel as “rumors” that are yet to be confirmed by German officials – please scoff loudly here – and doesn’t seem to think too highly of Jewish people in the first place. By keeping the tone light (for better or worse) and confining the drama and “action” to offices and boardrooms, The Swedish Connection is a lighterweight version of Schindler’s List – a movie quite clearly invoked when Gosta declares, “If we can save one person by simply doing our job, then by God, we should try.” And for another unheralded Scandinavian WWII story, check out the aforementioned Narvik, about the Nazi invasion of Norway. Some may take issue with the lack of gravity applied to the more serious, life-or-death dramatic developments, but Olsson and Ahlbeck’s intent is conveyed in the song that plays over the end credits: “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive.” And so the movie does just enough to acknowledge tragedy on its way to emphasizing the uplift of an ordinary guy doing what he can to save lives – a rather significant number of them, even.
Author: mliss1578
Published at: 2026-03-01 00:00:00
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