Grisjakten

Grisjakten (English: "The Pig Hunt") is a 1970 Swedish film, made by Jonas Cornell after a 1968 novel by P. C. Jersild starring Hans Alfredsson and Keve Hjelm^[1] The film's genre is difficult to classify, but it's an absurdly told story on an absurd matter. It's not black-comedy, as it isn't a comedy at all, at least not obviously. It's instead a dry and serious encounter with the Swedish bureaucracy, as well as of what democracy really is, as of its time in Sweden. Films with some kind of political message were not rare during the 1960s and 1970s, but this film contains no left or right message.^[2]

Production

• Director: Jonas Cornell
• Producer: Göran Lindgren
• Screenplay: P.C. Jersild, Jonas Cornell, Lars Svanberg
• Based on: Grisjakten (novel)
• Cinematography: Lars Svanberg
• Length: 94 minutes
• Swedish release: 11 March 1970

^[3]

Award

• Award: The Swedish Film Institute's Quality GrantMore ^[4]

Cast

• Hans Alfredson - herr Lennart Siljeberg, Bureau Chief at S.B.I., the Cattle Inspection of the State (a fictional bureau)
• Ann-Marie Gyllenspetz - fru Margareta Siljeberg, his wife
• Keve Hjelm - herr Sivert Gård, Departement Counselor
• Tord Peterson - herr John Blenheim-Ahlskog, veterinary, expert at burning of organic matter
• Margit Carlqvist - fru Maud Blenheim-Ahlskog, the veterinary's wife
• Ingvar Kjellson - Captain Gustaf Rosén, from the Swedish Army

and others ^[5]

Plot

For unknown, but indeed very democratic reasons, the Swedish government and the parliament (Riksdagen) have decided to "de-porkify" (avsvinifiera) Gotland. All domestic pigs at that Baltic Sea island must be terminated. Killed and then burned. Lennart Siljeberg, Bureau Chief at the so called Cattle Inspection of the State (Statens Boskapsinspektion abbreviated as SBI) is given the task to organize this commission by Departement Counselor Sivert Gård. Siljeberg doesn't think about why these pigs not instead could be slaughtered, and their meet be consumed. At work, Siljeberg always puts SBI's interests ahead of everything else, and at this occasion it means to organize the "de-porkification" process as smooth as possible, nothing more, nothing less. Meanwhile, Sivert Gård handles the media. And in a studio TV-interview, after have watched a journalistic television spot, in which some farmers dare to make a few complaints, he declares whilst smiling "No there simply cannot be any complaints, we are living in a democradic country. So why should anyone make complaints of a decision made by the government and by the people elected parliament ? It's not possible !". ^[6] The film includes a few short filmed shots of both living pigs as well as from a real slaughterhouse, but this film is not about pigs nor any kind of hunting.

References