Tillsammans is apparently the Swedish word for "Together." In the film of that title, "Tillsammans" is also the name of a "collective," a commune, inhabiting one suburban house around 1975 and encompassing several unique characters.

Who hasn't dreamed of living in a communal type atmosphere? A household with all members engaged in living together and working for the common good of the group is a wonderful way to exist. My favorite writer, Kurt Vonnegut, often speaks of artificially extended families and communes are certainly the only true attempt at creating them in late 20th century America (and Sweden apparently). Vonnegut's son, Mark, went out to Canada and created one. Then he went a little cuckoo, got well, and wrote a book about the experience called "The Eden Express." The point is: I have always been interested in communes but almost every look at one I have seen, whether fictional, as in the senior Vonnegut's novels, or real, as in his son's, have either been ludicrous fantasy or abject failures.

"Tillsammans," the communal group, the collective, in this wonderful and gracious Swedish film isn't a success perhaps, except that the majority of folks in the film end up happy. Some of the events that lead to this happiness do not fit in with an idea of a true commune (for example, a member is cast out in jealous anger), but at least the film wants to end happily, wants to show some love at the end of the rainbow. For that it must be applauded and applauded again.

The film revolves around a middle class wife who leaves her abusive husband, with her two young teenage children in tow. Having no where else to go, she moves into "Tillsammans," where her brother, Goran, is a resident as well as the seeming head of the commune, even though he is very wishy- washy. Once inside the walls of the communal house, we meet it's vast assortment of members, Goran's girlfriend, with whom he shares an "open relationship;" a young woman who has recently decided she is a lesbian, her ex-husband and their son, Tet; a young rather unattractive gay man named Klausse; a upper-class young man, a Marxist/Lenninist, who has rejected his family and his name in order to "live with the common people;" and so on. These are all interesting characters and writer/director Lukas Moodysson explores each of them deeply enough for us to be interested in them and care about them. Even though the main plot revolves around the woman and her abandoned husband, like a true commune, everyone's voice is heard and their opinions and lifestyles explored.

Moodysson should be commended too for his exploration of sexuality in the film. The problems of a "open relationship" are explored although the resolution to the situation here rings slightly false, seems a bit forced and improbable. There is also the attitudes and the explorations of romance and sex with the pubescent children in the commune. There is a scene where a grown woman attempts to seduce a 14 year old boy. And there are the homosexual characters, one lesbian, one gay male, whose sexual quests and lives become central to the evolution of several characters. Although the gay male and female do seem overly predatory, there resolutions are honest, truthful and even happy. And that is a real nice surprise here.

"Tillsammans" opens with a Abba song and the film never forgets it's mid-70's settings. The costumes are really far- out and the sets look really groovy. The piece never once fails to evoke the period. There is a particularly amusing scene late in the film where two of the children stand listening to a record both wearing the most unattractive 70's sweater-vests imaginable. It's cute. And Moodysson's use of cinematic techniques, wipes, dissolves, jumps in time and storyline asides all remind one of 70's filmmaking without being a direct homage or revisiting of that time period technically. It simply suggests this era at times in very nice and subtle ways, like using zooms or verite camera work. The film is loose yet cohesive like the best of 70's "new" cinema.

"Tillsammans" is a wonderful film because it explores a lifestyle of a bygone era that you don't hear much about anymore. And although the commune here is not perfect and every character at the start of the film is not present at the end, the finale seems to suggest that people can live together in harmony in some sort of artificial extended family. And finally, the film seems to say, what all of us really need is some occasional expressions of love, some knowledge of being needed and a few acts of human kindness now and again. And that's a really beautiful, beautiful thing to believe, man.

Note:

In Swedish with subtitles which seem to have been translated by a British or European person as spellings like "colour" and "arse" are used.

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