Falkenberg Farewell

In the tiny seaside town of Falkenberg, Sweden, five friends are going their separate ways. David and Holger are best mates, who spend most of their time taking magic mushrooms in the woods or skinny-dipping in the ocean. Jesper comes and goes, and sleeps on a pullout cot at the home of his aging father. Jörgen, full of energy and criminal tendencies, plans endless get-rich-quick schemes, while John simply eats a lot of bacon. The group has been friends since they were toddlers; now in their post-teen malaise, they spend one last summer full of slow moving afternoons, talking trash, breaking into empty homes, and generally trying to resist the movement of time. But all good things must come to an end, and the refusal to move forward will be taken to the ultimate conclusion by one of them.

Director Jesper Ganslandt’s debut film captures the peculiar rhythms of small town life, the empty beach houses, the bingo games played by sleepy seniors and the repetitive conversations between parents and their grown kids. The question, “What are you doing after the summer?” and the answer, “I know some people in Göteborg,” becomes both a running joke, and the focal point of a tragedy. Framed through the days and dates of one friend’s diary, the story becomes more than simple nostalgia, but an elegy for a lost idyll, and a testimonial to the bittersweet inevitability of life moving on. –TIFF