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| Image courtesy Sony Pictures Entertainment |
Every country has dark periods in its history that they are not proud of. One of Sweden’s trends is pennalism, an organized system of bullying and punishment by peers, oftentimes occurring in boarding schools. The older, more privileged students oppress the newer and weaker students while the administration looks the other way.
Swedish author, journalist, and ‘spy’ Jan Guillo went to such a boarding school in Stockholm in the ‘60s. After he became a journalist in his early 20s, he wrote an expose about that school, Solbacka, which led to its loss of funding from the Swedish government. The school couldn’t afford to stay open after that.
Guillo wrote Ondskan (Evil) in 1981 as a semi-autobiographical novel that featured pennalism at a fictional boarding school in Stockholm. In the novel, protagonist Erik is kicked out of school for his involvement in gangs and getting into fights. He is sent to Stjärnsberg, a boarding school filled with privileged sons of diplomats and the wealthy who use pennalism to reign over the other students.
The novel was adapted into an award-winning film in 2003 by Mikhael Håfström. While not perfect, the film is able to weave together the brutal pennalism of the novel with an ultimately satisfying conclusion. As with any literary adaptation, a lot of character development is dropped or condensed in order to fit the run time of the movie.
The film’s opening scene quickly sets the tone for the level of violence in the film when Erik is having dinner with his submissive mother and abusive stepfather. The stepfather tells Erik to hold his knife the correct way and then slaps Erik for saying something the stepfather didn’t like. An after-dinner routine of getting whipped with a belt occurs while Erik’s mom plays the piano in another room to cover up the noise.
Erik (Andreas Wilson) is then sent to Stjärnberg as a last resort to be able to finish high school and as a way to escape his stepfather’s abuse. He quickly befriends roommate Pierre (Henrik Lundström, Tillsammans), who advises him to keep his head down and conform. Erik and Pierre become the most well-drawn characters in the film, with others, such as Erik’s love interest, Marje (Linda Zilliacus), a Finnish girl working in the school kitchen, not getting as much development.
Leading the bullies at the school is Otto Silverhielm (a babyfaced Gustaf Skarsgård, because you can’t have a Swedish movie from the last 20 years without a Skarsgård). Otto uses other privileged students as his lieutenants to carry out ‘room inspections’ or public embarrassments during mealtimes over ‘infractions’. If the newer and weaker students refuse to participate in the mealtime embarrassments, then they’re summoned to a ring in the middle of campus to fight those lieutenants and Otto in front of everyone (except for teachers or administrators).
Having just escaped an abusive situation and having to refrain from fighting or doing anything to threaten his last chance to finish school, Erik is forced to figure out how to survive and finish his year at Stjärnberg. Andreas Wilson does a stellar job of portraying Erik’s simmering rage while attempting to fight back and not become like the bullies. The bloody fights and scenes of abuse and bullying can be hard to sit through, but they stand as a testament to a trend that hasn’t totally gone away.
A mini-series version of the novel (presumably with more character development of more people in the story) was made in 2023, with Gustav Skarsgård now playing the abusive stepfather character.
The film’s significance and relevance were illustrated recently when five students were indicted in 2025 regarding pennalism in a Swedish boarding school, Lundsberg. And the original school that author Guillo attended, Solbacka, may be reopened this same year.
Ondskan (2003) was nominated for a slew of Guldbagge Awards (Swedish Oscars) and for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2004. It won the Guldbagge awards for Best Film, Best Presentation (for production design), and Best Cinematography that year.
Ondskan is currently streaming on Kanopy.
- Eric Beach