Showing @ Cineworld, Edinburgh Sun 22 Jun & Cameo, Edinburgh Fri 27 Jun
Åsa Blanck, Johan Palmgren / Sweden / 2013 / 85 mins
Is it true that you can never go home again? Pelle Persson is particularly qualified to answer the age-old question. Having left his native Sweden to travel the world, he ended up in Lahore. Forty years on, he has converted to Islam, married Shamim and fathered two children. As his daughters reach adulthood and Persson’s liberal parenting style increasingly clashes with traditional culture, he decides it is at last time to go home.
Displaced Perssons follows the family’s transition to European life, and it soon transpires that much can change in forty years and starting over may not be as easy as it seems. From 25-year-old Zahra’s first visit to a nightclub to Shamim’s trepidation over learning Swedish to Pelle’s epic bureaucratic battle to prove his existence, viewers will be rooting for this wonderfully resilient, eccentric family throughout.
The jaunty titles set up the film’s offbeat, upbeat approach from the beginning and even in its most poignant moments, the film never loses its sense of humour. This is, of course, mainly due to the sheer force of personality of the entire Persson family. These are characters that writers might dream of creating, and Displaced Perssons allows audiences the pleasure and the privilege of sharing their journey.
Showing as part of Edinburgh International Film Festival 2014