“KEILLER’S PARK”– powerful drama

“Keillers Park”

Powerful Drama

Amos Lassen

It is no surprise that movies are getting bolder and Susanna Edwards in her frist full length feature “Keillers Park” (TLA Releasing) holds nothing back. In her movie which is based on real events she tells the story of a murder which occurred in Keiller’s Park in Sweden. But this is not just a story of a murder; it is a tale of intolerance and the difficulties of breaking patterns of behavior and how a person feels afterwards. Love comes when it is least expected and Edwards shows the reaction to it.

Peter, it seems, has a very promising future. He is starting his own family with his attractive girlfriend and is about to take over the family business from his father. He feels that life has been good to him and that he has everything he could hope for. Then, quite by surprise, his eyes meet the eyes of another and everything changes. He falls in love with another man, Nassim, and it is a deep and powerful love—one that cannot be dismissed easily.

Nassim and Peter develop a relationship while riles the tempers of members of Peter’s family and his friends become highly upset. The “Peter” that they knew is no more and the new “Peter” is trying to break out and claim his new lifestyle. Nassim wants openness and to be able to publicly declare their love while Peter is caught up in a struggle against his conservative upbringing and his friends and family. Things come to a head when the police storm into Peter’s apartment and arrest him for the murder of Nassim.

This is not a pretty story but it is a great movie. It is similar to those movies that were made once about “the love that dare not speak its name”. “Keillers Park” also gives us a look at Sweden and the way the country regards homosexuality. There was a time when gay themed movies ended with a death and/or a suicide but with the liberation movement and more public acceptance, things changed and gay movies have come into their own. Here is a throwback to the old days and while the story is not pretty, it does show how we are still forced to live and behave in certain countries. Powerfully acted and filmed in the “noir” style, here is a movie that will make you sit up and take notice. It is interesting in that we do not get a lot of movies about the way we live from Sweden and here is one that shows intolerance and non-acceptance. Are we not lucky to have wheat we have, even though it is not quite enough?