As It Is in Heaven
As It Is in Heaven | |
---|---|
Sonet Film | |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 132 minutes |
Country | Sweden |
Languages | Swedish English |
Budget | SEK 25,000,000 ≈ US$3,700,000 |
Box office | $18,328,469[2] |
As It Is in Heaven (
Plot
Daniel Daréus (
Daniel buys the old
Almost immediately, Lena (Frida Hallgren), an attractive young girl in the choir, catches his attention. As they grow closer and fall in love, he realises that he is surrounded by the villagers' personal problems. Inger (Ingela Olsson) is married to the respected minister, Stig (Niklas Falk), but has failed to develop a loving sexual relationship with her husband. Siv (Ylva Lööf) is so obsessed with morality that she cannot enjoy herself. Arne (Lennart Jähkel) is so ambitious for the choir's success that he obsesses over tiny mistakes, failing to see that he is making bigger mistakes himself. Tore (André Sjöberg) is mentally handicapped and shunned but is eventually included in the choir; Holmfrid (Mikhael Rahm) has put up with being called "Fatso" by Arne since childhood and eventually stands up to him. Gabriella (Helen Sjöholm) is beaten and abused by her husband, Conny (Per Morberg), a fact that is known and ignored by the whole village. She eventually finds the strength to leave him, as the whole village finds its strength to help her. Conny himself turns out to be the bully who was at school with Daniel and drove him from the village. He blames the choir and Daniel for his wife's decision and beats him up. This lands Conny in jail. The minister, Stig, is jealous of the choir's success and tries to close it down. His failure precipitates his eventual nervous breakdown.
The choir is accepted into the annual "
The final scene shows Daniel rushing towards his younger self within the wheat fields as he embraces his life's goal, to "create music that will open a person's heart".
Cast
- Michael Nyqvist as Daniel Daréus
- Frida Hallgren as Lena
- Helen Sjöholm as Gabriella
- Lennart Jähkel as Arne
- Ingela Olsson as Inger
- Niklas Falk as Stig
- Per Morberg as Conny
- Ylva Lööf as Siv
- André Sjöberg as Tore
- Mikael Rahm as Holmfrid
- Barbro Kollberg as Olga
- Axelle Axell as Florence
- Lasse Petterson as Erik
- Ulla-Britt Norrman as Amanda
Release
As It Is in Heaven was particularly successful in Australia. The Hayden Orpheum in the Sydney suburb of Cremorne showed the film for 103 weeks (as of November 2008), making it one of the longest-running films in Australian history. By comparison, The Sound of Music ran in Adelaide for over three years. A celebration of the popularity and spirit of the film was held at the Orpheum in August 2007 with a concert of Scandinavian music including a finale of "Gabriella's Song" from the film. A recording of proceedings was made for the director Kay Pollak and, via a pre-recorded message to the audience, he thanked Sydneysiders for embracing the film so warmly.[3]
It ran for 52 weeks in New Zealand and had good word-of-mouth audiences in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands.[citation needed]
Reception
Critical response
As It Is in Heaven has an approval rating of 83% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on six reviews, and an average rating of 6.67/10.[4]
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for
Stage musical
A critically acclaimed
Sequel
A stand-alone sequel, Heaven on Earth (Swedish: Så ock på Jorden), also directed by Kay Pollak was released in 2015.
See also
- List of submissions to the 77th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
- List of Swedish submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
References
- ^ "Så som i himmelen" (in Swedish). Swedish Film Database. 3 September 2004. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
- ^ "As It is in Heaven (2008) (2008) - Box Office Mojo". Archived from the original on 2018-02-18. Retrieved 2020-02-19.
- ^ "Snubbed film sinks the Titanic - Film - Entertainment". smh.com.au. 2007-05-26. Retrieved 2010-05-11.
- ^ "As It is in Heaven (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes.