Vägen Ut

Reality has, as we know, a strange way of overshadowing fiction - the success of Breaking Out is on Iy one too obvious example of that. The content of the film namely has -even though director Daniel Lind Lagerlof strongly denies any plagiarism i- a strong likeness to the theatrical experiment which director Jan Jonsson initiated in the mid-1980s. Jonsson then staged Beckett's play Waiting for Godotwith a number of inmates from the Kumla institution in the roles. At the time of the premiere though, the ''actors'' were missing, and only showed up a couple of days later- in Madrid! In Breaking Out it is Bjorn Kjellman in the role of Reine who arrives at Kumla, fully convinced of the healing powers of theatre. The opposition from the prison management, and not the least from the zealous prison guard Jakobsson, is as firm as the walls surrounding the institution. Not even the inmates show any kind of real enthusiasm - until they see the other possibility than the planned one. As if the debate about the origin of the film wasn't enough, a couple of months after the premiere there was another escape of prisoners involved in a theatre project, to much embarrassment. This time it was Lars Norens play 7:3, with a far more disastrous outcome in the shape of the police kill ings in Malexander. A violent debate raised already record high temperatures even more, and the question of the chicken or the egg was brought to a head. With all of this in the back of your mind it might be difficult to see Breaking Out as a comedy, but that's exactly what it is. It is also a very successful one, with a social involvement which creates direct associations to the British success of The Full Montyor, when it's at its best, the classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Medverkande
Björn Kjellman,Peter Haber,Viveka Seldahl: Producent
Björn Carlström: Manus
Malin Lagerlöf: Foto
Jens Fischer: Musik
Conny Malmquist: Talat språk
Swedish