Headmaster: Never, I repeat never, in all my years as headmaster of this school have I met a more vicious pupil than you with such a brutish level of behavior. ERIK PONTI! Now you listen to me! The fact that some teachers happen to defend your academic ability does not make up for your behavior. In fact, it makes it even worse. It's beyond understanding. It's deeply worrying. There's only one word for people like you and that's "Evil".
Erik Ponti (Andreas Wilson) has always been a trouble child - getting physically abused by his step-father at home while taking it out on other kids at school. He is not a monster - as the opening scene would make you believe - but just another rebellious kid who hasn't got his priorities right and has a taste for needling authority of any kind. As Erik gets expelled from school due to one of his violent acts, his mother arranges for a private boarding school that can offer him the only chance to mend his ways. After learning that his mother has sold some of their belongings to pay for his school, he promises not to mess up again.
Well.....some things don't change for some people. Being someone who is easily worked up by any kind of injustice towards the weak, Erik doesn't quiet warm up to the "rules" set by the senior students at his new school. He manages to make a couple of good friends in his class, specially, Pierre Tanguy (Henrik Lundstrom), but none of them being the kind who'd stand up to the seniors. Tanguy advises Erik not to stand out from the crowd after Erik manages to beat some of his seniors at swimming. Tanguy, on the other hand, is a bookworm and the perfect guy who can sail through without being noticed. And as he himself puts it, "No one would want to hurt a coward". Erik also develops a liking for one of the kitchen staff, Marja (Linda Zilliacus), and there's some nice chemistry between the two.
Soon enough, Erik becomes the victim of two of his sadistic seniors, Silverheilm (Gustaf Skarsgard) and Dahlen (Jesper Salen), and is forced to carry out a few humiliating tasks for not having obeyed them initially. As the strain between them seems to escalate, we see the seniors pushing all limits of cruelty by targeting Tanguy in order to make Erik suffer. As Tanguy drops out of school following the constant torture and humiliation, Erik is faced with two alternatives - lie low and manage to pass through school without any further trouble or avenge the injustice meted out to Tanguy and risk being expelled and thus disappoint his mother.
Mikael Hafstrom depicts the story with great intensity and some of the scenes of cruelty will make you cringe with pain. Up until the ending, the movie is extremely realistic and shows how much of a pain can life be for the outcast and the one who dares to stand up to the so-called "leaders". However, I was a little disappointed with the ending since it took the easy way out by making it very Hollywood-like. The one reason I love foreign cinema is because, unlike Hollywood, it's not obsessed with "heroes" and is not afraid of steering towards the truth. The truth being, rebels, more often than not, will be crucified. Having said that, any reservations I may have regarding the movie's finale would be just a subjective point of view and hence in no way should affect the rating.
Rating: 8/10
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