(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The Swedish Theory of Love
Director and screenplay: Erik Gandini
A man is alone in his apartment. He has been dead for three weeks – and people only know about his passing away because it has begun to smell painful in the rise where he lives. When the Swedish authorities investigate the matter more closely, they find out that he has no close relatives or friends. Most likely, he has lived year after year all alone in front of the TV or computer, lonely and alone. He has a daughter, they eventually find out, but she is impossible to get hold of. His assets are thus dumped in the rubbish dump, while his money ends up in the Swedish treasury. He had, as it turns out, a good fortune in the bank. But it doesn't help that much when he has no one to share the money with.
"For what does it matter if I have a million on the bank if I'm not happy anyway," says one of the social workers who searched through the dead man's apartment for signs of social life and relatives.
The new independence. Erik Gandini's movie The Swedish Theory of Love deals with the individualism of the Scandinavian countries. He traces it back to 1972, then the pamphlet The family of the future – a socialist family policy stated that adults' relationships with each other should be based on voluntariness and independence.
"Every person should be treated as an independent individual and not as an attachment to a provider," said Olof Palme, one of the drivers of the new family policy. While in more traditional societies we are born into family or other social events where we depend on others to survive, over the last 40 years there has been an ever-increasing focus on each of us being self-sufficient.
Failed policy? Do you live alone too? There are many who do – especially in Norway and Sweden, where almost half of the population has a solo household. The question that quickly arises is whether being alone is an expression of freedom or independence – or not. The Swedish Theory of Love outlines Northern European family politics over the last 40 years and how the ideology of independence developed in the 1970s as a counterpart to what was perceived as outdated and traditionalist ways of life.
“More than one in five of us feel lonely. As many as 70 Norwegians have no close relatives or friends they can turn to when they need someone to talk to, »we can read on helsenorge.no. In both Sweden and Norway, the number of singles and lonely people is increasing. The number of citizens who have no one to talk to is growing. There have also been new groups, namely young immigrants, who neither speak a language nor have a social network. Young men in particular fall into this category.
Not even mentioning the conservative gender role patterns in Ethiopia contributes to a distortion of the truth.
Rose paint. Safety can be an accident, says one of the young people interviewed in the film. He sits with a bunch of young hippie-like individuals gathered in a meditation circle in the Swedish forest. When we are supported by the state, when we do not need to contact each other for help, yes, then we may not want to get in touch with each other either, suggests one of the others. Of course, these are reasonable twists and turns that can lead to some scratches for the exaggerated assessment of the Scandinavian countries as an paradox for human happiness and well-being.
Friction becomes extra noticeable as we move to Africa in the next scene. "Let's leave perfection for a moment, let's move on to progress, to Sweden's stark contradictions on the map of values." In Ethiopia, more specifically the rural Wollegga, the Swedish doctor Dr. Erichsen has settled. "People are never alone here," he says. "Here they take care of each other."
Modern and traditional values. Traditional values, where family and community are at the center, have been downplayed through the individualist ideology, as Dr. Erichsen points out. But doesn't director Erik Gandini agree too easily with this point of view? There is no doubt that we can learn something crucial about looking after each other by looking at, for example, Ethiopia, but that does not mean that we should return to the nuclear family as it was before the (by Gandini) demonized family policy document. This is also the problem with the film – because although we have problems here in the north, the example of Ethiopia as a role model is not only simple, but idealizing and naïve. The fact that the conservative gender role patterns in Ethiopia are not even mentioned, not to mention genital mutilation, simply contributes to a distortion of the truth.
Confusions. There is a lot of loneliness in Scandinavia. But does that mean it's terrible to live here? No, it means that certain notions of how to live together are flawed and do not have enough room for empathy and solidarity. This is expressed in particular through the current refugee situation.
The Swedish Theory of Love is a well-made documentary film that puts your finger on a sore point in the Nordic self-image, and for which there is good reason to think more. But the film offers no solutions, only idealizing and simplifying models. Gandini is in for something important when Polish sociologist Zygmunt Baumann comes in towards the end of the film. "Happiness is not well-being," he says. “It's about mastering challenges. This disappears as welfare increases. " He should have come earlier, preferably at the very beginning of the movie, because here things start to get interesting. As a whole, the movie just gets a bit naive, which is a shame – because that's the crucial question Gandini addresses. Because at the end of independence, it is not only loneliness that awaits, as Baumann points out, but unhappiness and boredom beyond what you can imagine.
The film has the Norwegian premiere on August 19.
