Sebbe

A fan-captured social drama whose wheels fall off, especially when the director reaches for special effects, disrupting Simon Pramsten's magically close bonding of characters and magnificent camera. However, the image of the social environment of Gothenburg's dregs is painfully authentic and detailed, which only underlines the breathtaking performance of Sebastian Hiort af Ornäs, who has captured the unwanted creature incredibly aptly. Babak Najafi is undoubtedly a great talent, such a pure Nordic genre is an illustrative example of this. A strong ****. (28.03.2011)

Once the movie description says it’s a drama and the country of origin is one of the five Scandinavian countries, you can be sure that whatever kind of drama this might be, it will punch you in the gut pretty much every time. Sebbe is the debut of the director Babak Najifi, who is definitely a pure-bred Swede with Iranian roots. And he managed to survive this depressing life just fine. Sebbe lives in a fucked-up family that only includes his mother. He’s involved in bullying, but he’s not stupid at all. But the world of children is a whole different thing, so you see pure desperation in his eyes about his life that keeps shooting depressing arrows at him from all parts of his life. The character of Sebastian was portrayed by Sebastian Hiort af Ornäs, and he did a terrific job of it. You could read all the sad things in his eyes. The ending was brutal and exaggerated, but it did what the director intended. I was wound up as a string. (03.09.2015)