The Dream of America

THE FILM ABOUT HEART AND TECTOR. THE LAST CRIMINALS TO BE PUBLICLY EXECUTED IN SWEDEN.

NEWLY SCANNED VERSION

Outside Visby, 07:00, May 17, 1876. Horror shines from the eyes as Tector's head is placed in the gallows. The audience gasps. The executioner raises the sharp axe, but he is so drunk that the blow hits the shoulder. The second blow hits the side of the neck, before the third finally separates the head from the body. At the same time in Malmköping, Tector's friend Hjert is also executed. A few years earlier, the two petty thieves had met in prison and were released without civil rights. Deprived of the chance to get a job, the pair set their sights on stealing enough money to start a new life in America. But the dream quickly turns into a nightmare when the petty thieves turn into double murderers.

THE AMERICAN DREAM was made exactly 100 years after Hjert and Tector were the last to be publicly executed in Sweden. The roles are played by Janne Carlsson and Hans Klinga, who a couple of years earlier had played soldier Poles in the TV hit Somewhere in Sweden, and in small roles we see a number of fine names such as Mona Seilitz, Ewa Fröling and Margaretha Krook. The costume design is by Ulla-Britt Söderlund, who won an Oscar that same year for Kubrick's blockbuster Barry Lyndon.

“A EMOTIONAL AND STRONG FILM” Variety

"THINK OF BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID" Bonniers Stora Filmguide