Concerning Violence

CONCERNING VIOLENCE Frantz Fanon’s decolonization seen through 1970s Swedish television Africa archives

Frantz Fanon’s decolonization seen through 1970s Swedish television Africa archives

In Concerning Violence Göran Hugo Olsson has created an almanac documentary drawing on material from Swedish television archives, filmed by a number of directors in Africa, largely in the 1970s. It’s fascinating footage, covering a number of perspectives on what was happening in the continent over that decade, from the frontline guerilla wars with the MPLA in Angola and FRELIMO in Mozambique, to industrial unrest in Liberia, and apparently matter-of-fact interviews with white settlers in Rhodesia and elsewhere.

Cristina, Regina di Svezia, Chelsea Opera Group, Cadogan Hall

CRISTINA, REGINA DI SVEZIA, CHELSEA OPERA GROUP, CADOGAN HALL No neglected gem, Foroni's cod-historical opera showcases soprano Helena Dix

No neglected gem, Foroni's cod-historical opera showcases soprano Helena Dix

One queen is much like another in so-called “historical” Italian early to mid 19th-century opera. Elizabeth of England, Christina of Sweden, take your pick, they all fall for a tenor courtier who loves Another (the seconda donna, soprano or mezzo). With Donizetti, the musical drama is almost as disposable as the plot until a stonking number or two rolls up. Jacopo Foroni, more or less unknown until Wexford resurrected him a year ago, has a few more felicitous orchestral touches but nothing as memorable as Donizetti's best.

theartsdesk in Stockholm: A Nobel Prize for Musical Excellence

THEARTSDESK IN STOCKHOLM: THE 2014 BIRGIT NILSSON PRIZE The great Wagnerian diva's million-dollar award brings the Vienna Philharmonic to the Swedish capital

The 2014 Birgit Nilsson Prize brings the Vienna Philharmonic to the Swedish capital

Should you not have caught one of the 20th century’s handful of greatest Wagnerian singers live - I did, just once, in a Prom of uneven excerpts - chances are that you first heard Birgit Nilsson in Brünnhilde’s Immolation Scene from Götterdämmerung on Sir Georg Solti’s Vienna Philharmonic Ring recording.

Goat, Concorde 2, Brighton

GOAT, CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON Swedish voodoo freakoids rock a sweltering, overcrowded venue

Swedish voodoo freakoids rock a sweltering, overcrowded seaside venue

This is what Goat look like: There are seven of them, five band members and two front-women, the latter constantly whirling about the stage like dervishes. One of the guitarists and the bassist are clad in dark attire with black cowls over their heads akin to those worn by nomadic Arabic riders in the Sahara – but also a little like hangmen. The second guitarist has on a beanie hat underneath which resides a gold mask, as if he were a sinister ancient deity returned to haunt an Eighties B-movie.

CD: Goat – Commune

Swedish psychedelicists move the hips and spin the mind

Goat are the Swedish psychedelic rock band that made themselves known to the world in 2012 with their sublime debut album, World Music. Much critical acclaim was piled upon their gumbo of psychedelia, motorik and afrobeat and most of these influences are present in Commune. However, things in Goatworld have not stood still and now there is even more emphasis on dancing into a frenzy to fuzzy and repetitive grooves, while more straightforward songs, like “Run to your Mama” or “Let it bleed” from their debut, take a backseat.

10 Questions for Actor Stellan Skarsgård

10 QUESTIONS FOR ACTOR STELLAN SKARSGARD Sweden's succesful export talks about the humour in brutality, the nature of Scandinavia and Monty Python

Sweden's succesful export talks about the humour in brutality, the nature of Scandinavia and Monty Python

“Haven’t we met before?” We hadn’t, but Stellan Skarsgård’s friendly greeting immediately sets the tone for an encounter which is so relaxed that thoughts of the explosive Nils, the quiet man who boils over in In Order of Disappearance, almost evaporate. How did this affable, chatty and thoughtful Swede become a man who kills repeatedly and so gruesomely on screen?

DVD: We Are the Best!

DVD: WE ARE THE BEST! Love, life and the last days of punk embraced by three winning girls in 1980s Sweden

Love, life and the last days of punk embraced by three winning girls in 1980s Sweden

Lukas Moodysson caught the miseries and splendours of kids on the cusp of teendom in an early gem, Together (Tillsammans), but there they made up only one strand in the general trajectory of trouble to triumph. That difficult theme of very early adolescence, so easy to parody, so hard to keep truly affectionate, is the entire domain of We Are the Best!

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

Unfunny film adaptation of best-selling Swedish novel is for converts only

Despite the profusion of slapstick jappery, explosions, a whimsical veneer and cartoonish portrayals of its characters, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared is not a film aimed at children. The Swedish blockbuster also includes castration, explicit violence, death by being locked in a freezer and near-the-knuckle racial categorisation. Balancing the picaresque and the macabre, the film ends up as neither one nor the other, or a harmonious hybrid. Although intermittently funny, it is not the sum of its parts.

DVD: Wallander – Collected Films

DVD: WALLANDER – COLLECTED FILMS Sweden’s troubled detective bows out with a dazzling performance from Krister Henriksson

Sweden’s troubled detective bows out with a dazzling performance from Krister Henriksson

Last Saturday saw the broadcast of the final Wallander on British TV. The new six-episode series has hit DVD within days of the programme being off air. As the distracted, always-troubled detective, Krister Henriksson had asked that for his return to the role after a four-year gap in this third series, it should end with no possibility of a comeback – after series 2, he’d said he wouldn’t play Wallander again yet he did. This time, the series ended with a full stop. There is no chance Wallander will be coming back.

CD: Little Dragon - Nabuma Rubberband

The Swedes' slow-acting charm is still in effect

Little Dragon are all about the slow burn. The Swedish band had been going for 10 years before they released their first single in 2006, and in the time since then they've built their profile steadily through hard gigging and interesting collaborations, rather than any massive smashes. Their music reflects this too, tending to the insidious rather than the immediate, and that seems to be the case more than ever on their fourth album.