SUMMER WITH MONIKA

SOMMAREN MED MONIKA – SUMMER WITH MONIKA

By Per Anders Fogelström

Summer With Monika is the classical unfiltered depiction of Swedish city youth, its issues, its social life, its liberated erotic behaviour, its way to be in all of life’s phases. The movie adaption of the novel, directed by Ingmar Bergman in 1953, starring Lars Ekborg and Harriet Andersson got a lot of recognition and is today viewed as a classic. 

It’s the story of Harry and Monika, who believe they are fleeing from society, but whose “flight” fits into one summer. A summer that becomes the theme song for love in the devotional picturesque archipelago of Stockholm. The author tells the story of the youth’s love filled life intrusively realistically and also with compassion and finesse. The same compassion and psychologically sharp gaze distinguishes the supporting characters, who all when put together create a motley and engaging gallery of people.

Per Anders Fogelström (1917-1998) was a Södermalm kid and he knew both the environment and the people there, the hills and back alleys, taverns, dance shacks and the folks living in its dark backyard apartments.