SVT

At dawn on June 22, 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. On the same morning, Germany demanded permission from the Swedish government to transport 18,000 German soldiers from Norway to Finland across Sweden by railway. This was a difficult problem for the Swedish government. On one hand remaining friendly with Germany at the height of its power, on the other maintaining a strict neutrality. The Swedish cabinet meet in Stockholm to decide upon the best reply to the German demands.

Describes a few artistic friends in the Swedish countryside, who learn how life and reality outweigh the poem.

As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.

Blind-Jonas is in a poorhouse dreaming about his past, in contrast the young girl Cecilia shows up dreaming about her future.

Real estate broker Oskarsson visits a cabin deep in the woods. There he finds a bedridden and mute old woman who seems well cared for. There has recently been a fire in the stove, there is food in the fridge, but no trace of who cares for her.

Director Jösta Hagelbäck speaks on the importance of Werner Herzog.

Rakel is a strict Christian believer living in the far north of Sweden in the 1930s. When her husband forms a sectarian movement, with directions straight from God, she has no choice but to join the increasingly explicit cult.

Affected by the powerful images in the pamphlet Om kriget kommer (If the war comes), farmhand Karl-Göran Persson begins fortifying his house. Through years of harvesting scrap-metal, he transforms the house into a fortress, meant to protect him and his neighbors when the enemy attacks. As the task progresses, reality and the threat of future destruction become intertwined, and construction becomes an obsession for the lonely Karl-Göran.