Ådalen 31 is a 1969 film from Sweden directed by Bo Widerberg.
The setting is 1931 in the Ådalen district, specifically in the port town of Marma. As the story opens the town is already beset by a strike at a wood pulp factory. Factory bosses bring in scabs to undercut the strikers, which only exacerbates things, as the strikers violently attack the scabs. When the government, in cahoots with the factory bosses, brings in the army to protect the scabs, tragedy ensues.
However, mundane life still goes on in the town while the labor dispute escalates to a crisis. Kjell, son of one of the striking workers, falls in love with Anna, daughter of the owner of the factory. His friend Nisse, meanwhile, has developed an interest in hypnosis. Naturally, Nisse attempts to use hypnosis to get pretty girls naked.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: Did Nisse really hypnotize his girlfriend and strip her nude, or was she just playing along with some fantasy wish fulfillment? Given how the whole rest of the film is told in a very realistic style, it's tempting to assume that Nisse's girlfriend was just playing along, but nothing in the film actually shows that.
- Based on a True Story: The Ådalen shootings
of 1931 are dramatized as they pretty much actually happened. And as the closing title card notes, the tragedy caused the left wing to take power in Sweden, and hold it almost continuously until the time this movie was made (and in fact until 1976, when the Social Democrats finally lost). - Bittersweet Ending: Anna's baby is aborted and it seems that she and Kjell will never get back together, and Kjell's father and his best friend Nisse are both killed in the march. But Kjell tells his mother that they have to carry on, and the two of them are smiling at each other as they clean the house at the end. Also the closing title notes that the left won power after the Ådalen tragedy and enacted reforms.
- Call-Back: In the scene where Mrs. Björklund is teaching young Kjell about art, she makes a point to teach him how to correctly pronounce "Pierre-Auguste Renoir". At the end of the film when Anna's father is telling Kjell that Mrs. Björklund got Anna an abortion, Kjell says Renoir's name, with the correct pronunciation, an allusion to how Mrs. Björklund didn't truly recognize him as an equal.
- Dude, She's Like in a Coma: If one assumes that Nisse somehow actually did manage to hypnotize his girlfriend into an unconscious state, then this trope applies, because after he does so, he strips her nude. He seems to be wondering what to do next when Kjell calls him away to the march.
- Genre Mashup: A mixture of Coming of Age Story as teenagers lose their virginity and learn life lessons, and a pointed political drama.
- Jitter Cam: Bouncy jitter cams are used a lot in the climactic scene where the army soldiers open fire on the striking workers.
- Kids Are Cruel: The local teenaged boys screw around with the town drunk by putting a bottle of vodka in a fishing net, and getting the drunkard tangled up in net as he scrambles for the bottle. After Kjell's disgusted father Harald cuts the drunkard loose, the drunk finally takes a swing from the bottle only to discover that it's water.
- Match Cut: From Anna's mother showing Kjell a Renoir painting of a woman washing laundry in a stream, to Kjell's mother actually washing laundry in a stream.
- No Name Given: Nisse's attractive girlfriend, the one that he finally manages to get naked right before the fatal march to the factory, is not named.
- Only Sane Man: Anna's father Mr. Björklund, who owns the wood pulp factory, suggests that maybe they should just pay the strikers more to end the strike. But his fellow investors categorically reject that idea, as they are determined to show the workers who's boss.
- The Place: The Ådalen district of Sweden, in 1931.
- P.O.V. Cam: A wobbly P.O.V. Cam shows the point-of-view of a scab who is violently yanked off of a boat, by the striking workers who are determined to stop him and the other scabs from loading it up.
- Strike Episode: The workers at a wood pulp factory go on strike, which eventually leads to a violent confrontation.
- Title by Year: The Ådalen labor strike of 1931.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Surprisingly, the County Administrative Board votes to support the union and ban the scabs from working. But the strikers in the town don't hear about that before going on the fatal march to the factory.
- Uptown Girl: Actually, Anna's mother Mrs. Björklund is a sort of mentor to Kjell, teaching him about art. But the Björklunds are still rich folks and Kjell's family are still workers, so when Kjell knocks Anna up, her mother whisks her to Stockholm for an abortion. Kjell realizes that Mrs. Björklund never really recognized him as an equal.
- Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb: The dumb kids of the village construct glider wings and jump off the roof of a barn, "flying" onto a pile of hay. Naturally, one kid misses the hay and breaks his leg.
