Film

Poslední věta

Torgny Segerstedt was undoubtedly one of the leading journalists in Sweden in the 20th century. During the war he was one of the most admired Swedes in Denmark and Norway. As editor of the daily Handelstidningen newspaper in Gothenburg (aka GHT or Göteborgs Handels & Sjöfartstidning), Torgny fought a one man battle against Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime from 1933 until his death in 1945. This was no simple feat, since Sweden's ambition was to remain completely neutral during the Second World War. Leading figures in industry and politics, including the King of Sweden himself, all tried to silence him out of fear of German reprisals and, not least, to protect the Swedish nation. But Segerstedt, in spite of everything, could not be silenced. He was driven by his own implacable self confidence and a vehement hatred of the Nazi atrocities. Segerstedt stood up against and confronted, as a journalist, that which others refused to see. He was one of the first people to realize what Hitler's power take over would mean for the future of Europe. Herman Göring saw Segerstedt as a threat from the start. Göring sent an angry telegram demanding that Handelstidningen immediately stop publishing critical articles about Nazism, and warned that Sweden's continued friendship with Germany would be at risk. Without the support and backing of the paper's chairman, Axel Forssman, Segerstedt would never have been able to write as openly as he did. Furthermore the two men were good friends in private and both active members of Gothenburg society, along with their wives. Forssman's wife was Jewish and Segerstedt's wife was Norwegian; a fact that perhaps helped fan the flames of the two couples' vehement anti-Nazi position. There was, however, a crack in this solid wall of friendship and solidarity. Segerstedt, always self confident and cocky began an affair with Axel's wife, Maja. Segerstedt's and Maja's affair threatened not only the friendship of the four of them, but also jeopardized the two men's collaboration at the newspaper. Their private lives were marked by a world in chaos during tumultuous times. When the affair became a public secret, all four of them were forced to live with it. But it was a tacit agreement that not all of them were able to cope with. Segerstedt's wife, Puste, died tragically of a broken heart brought on by his unfaithfulness. Axel Forssman fought his own battle against cancer and lost. Maja also died, by her own hand. By the time Hitler died in his bunker in Berlin in April 1945 Segerstedt's life was already over. After Hitler's defeat, there was nothing more left for Segerstedt to fight for: and since the people he loved most already were dead, there was nothing left for him to live for. "Truth and consequence" weaves together the story of a psychological cum erotic love story with a portrayal of the political situation Sweden found herself in during the Second World War. By juggeling these dramatic events against each other; by switching between the "external world events" and the "private lives" of the protagonists makes "Truth and consequence" a gripping, dramatic and poetic tale.

Orig. title:

The Last Sentence

Genre: Drama, Biopic

Directed by: Jan Troell

Starring: Jesper Christensen (Torgny Segerstedt), Pernilla August (Maja Forssman), Ulla Skoog (Puste Segerstedt), Kenneth Milldoff (Per Albin Hansson), Peter Andersson (Christian Günther), Birte Heribertson (Estrid Ancker)

Screenplay: Kenne Fant, Klaus Rifbjerg, Jan Troell

Country: Sweden, Norway

Year: 2012

Score: 80 %