The White Sport
Den vita sporten
Sweden
1968
102 Min
Color
1.37:1
Swedish
Synopsis
The question the filmmaker wishes to explore is if sports and politics don’t mix, with the Davis Cup tennis matches between Sweden and Rhodesia as a backdrop. Of course the answer is already given – sports are politics as much as anything that goes down in society as a whole. Naturally, politicians and sports organizers disagree, but a regular but diverse army consisting of angry students, self-righteous liberals and crazed fanatical Maoists set their course toward the small beach resort Båstad. Things get really ugly as the determined demonstrators attempt to stop the match at all costs. THE WHITE SPORT is really down there in the crowd – literally – as the water cannons start spewing and Mao’s little red book is waved in frantic aggression. It’s got a direct, fist-in-the-crotch approach, with sprawling youthful frustration within and between the frames. You can almost feel this presence when Bo Widerberg, Roy Andersson and the other directors and producers in the collective Grupp 13 charge the local police, motorcycle gangs, racist Rhodesian thugs, lazy power-crazed politicians and conformist working- or middle-class locals. This film is not just a film that documents a riot between leftist students and the police in Båstad – this is the closest anyone has ever gotten in making a documentary about the Paris near-revolution of ’68. That is truly revolutionary. –FilmFest Muenchen
Director
Roy Andersson
ROY ANDERSSON (born 1943) started his film career with short films „Visiting Your Son” (1967) and „Getting the Bike” (1968). You will see both of them also in Sleepwalkers. Andersson’s first feature was „A Swedish Love Story” (1970), where the young Andersson gave a deep look into the world of love. This film won in Berlinale four prizes and was very successful amongst the audience. His next film „Gilliap” (1976) was black comedy with a very serious style. After that Andersson quit with films and made only advertisements.
In 1981 Andersson created his own company and explained that he wanted to be free in his creation. After that he made many very special and successful ads, which won all together eight Golden Lions in Cannes.
In 1987 he made a short film about AIDS „Something Happened”. This film was supposed to be shown in Swedish schools, but was denied, as it was too shocking.
In his next film „World of Glory” (1991) Andersson went even futher with his serious… read more
Bo Widerberg
Swedish filmmaker Bo Widerberg is best known internationally for his impressionistic romantic drama Elvira Madigan (1967). Three of his films, All Things Fair (1996), Adalen 31 (1969), and Raven’s End (1964), have received Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Film. Widerberg started out as a novelist, but turned to filmmaking after writing Visionen i Svensk Film/Vision in Swedish Film (1962), a scathing criticism of Ingmar Bergman’s alleged monopoly of Swedish cinema. In his treatise, Widerberg argued for films containing realistic themes dealing with earthier concerns rather than the Bergmanesque tendency to address lofty abstractions on the existence of God. In hopes of creating a “new wave” in Swedish cinema, one that addressed the seething inner lives of characters rather than their neatly unified, socially progressive exteriors, Widerberg made Barnvagnen/Baby Carriage (1963), the story of a young single and pregnant woman who chooses independence over two potential suitors. It was… read more
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