The 100-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

director: Felix Herngren
year: 2013
with: Robert Gustafsson, Iwar Wiklander, David Wiberg, Mia Skäringer, etc.

plot: Allan’s life has been devoted to his passion for dynamite and bookended by being sent to a psychiatric hospital as a child and now a retirement home for blowing up a man who swindled his mother and the fox that ate his cat, Molotov.
As the staff and fellow pensioners prepare to throw the rebellious centenarian a party, Allan makes the impromptu decision to climb out of the window  and disappear. Then, when Allan makes off with a violent skinhead’s suitcase the action cuts between Karlsson’s capers on his birthday and his life story where he saves Franco’s life, dances with Stalin, and brings about the end of the Berlin Wall.

what I liked: I loved the solution to have the narrated bits in English and the dialogues in subtitled Swedish, well done! And the humour is just typical for northern films, perfect.

what I didn't like: Robert Gustafsson surely does a good job at aging and being rejuvenated in front of the camera but, as so often in films, I have troubles seeing a 100 year old in him.

verdict: Very much a Swedish Forrest Gump that is completely non p.c. which makes it fun. Good entertainment if you manage to turn off any logic and rational thinking but not something I need to watch again and again - yes, I have to read the book now (own it for several years now).