Swedish director Kay Pollak was nominated for an Academy Award for this 2004 production, As it si in Heaven (Så som i himmelen in Swedish). The film has been described by one reviewer as “the best thing to come out of Sweden since Abba”. Thankfully no one in the cast dons white jump suits and performs dance sequences whilst declaring “momma mia here I go again”, but that Abba daggy element is definitely prevalent in this very dramatic work.  Watch it and see what I mean. 

Like a true Western hero adhering to the conventions of the western genre, the main character, Daniel, leaves the town after enduring some serious physical and emotional ruckus, returns years later and ‘solves’ the problems of those in the town.  However, as this is not a western the similarities stop there and the hero decides to stick around rather than taking off into the sunset.

This is one of the most emotionally charged movies I have seen for a while - it's innocent and endearing and deals intelligently with unquestionably important issues such as domestic violence, bullying, love, loss, bigotry, small town attitudes to the wider world and, well, it’s just a cooking pot of emotions.

It’s not hard to see why this film enjoyed the popularity it did upon its release internationally, the fact that it ran for a record breaking 123 weeks in Sweden though is a bit worrying. 

Never a big fan of giving away the plot of a movie (as ‘Grandpa’ from The Lost Boys said “you read the TV guide you don’t need a TV”) I won’t delve too much into the comings and goings of the characters but suffice to say that the main character, a famous international conductor, is on a quest as he declares to “create music that will open people’s hearts”.  That’s clearly the intention of the director to squeeze as much emotion as possible into every scene and push the characters to emotional breaking point in order that we the audience recognise the need in all of us to help one another lest we wish to help ourselves…sniff….where are the Kleenexes?

This is a Swedish deep tissue massage of another kind. You will go though a whole box of them. 

As it is in Heaven is out now through Madman.