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Director's Statement
A MAN CALLED OVE is a universal story that revolves around Ove who we first get to know as the neighbourhood's grumpy old man. The core of the story is the unexpected friendship between pregnant Parvaneh who recently has moved in opposite Ove's with her husband and two children. Ove has recently lost his beloved wife and along the story Parvaneh succeeds in revealing that Ove has a heart-breaking story with his wife Sonja. For Ove there was nothing before Sonja and there’s nothing after Sonja.
Ove is shaped by hard work and has lost his mother at age seven. From his father he learned that life is all about hard work, the differences between right and wrong, and the only car you should drive is a SAAB. In the film we follow Ove in the present were he looks over the neighbourhood with an iron fist. Through flashbacks Ove’s journey trough life emerges and his heart-breaking love story with his wife Sonja. The love Ove has for Sonja makes him determined to join his wife and to try to commit suicide. However, this turns out to be more difficult than he thought, because he always gets interrupted by other people who need him. We also learn that behind Ove’s grumpiness lives a heart-warming man with a passion for justice. As a character, Ove is a man that many of us can recognise around themselves, like your father, grandfather, brother or uncle. Ove’s way of looking at people and situations around him providess both comic relief as well as a drama.
I want to focus more on the drama part but Ove’s way of looking at things gives the story laughter. His friendship with the neighbour Parvaneh grows stronger and slowly Ove starts seeing himself so close to the family that the children call him grandfather. In the flashbacks we see the love story between Ove and his Sonja, were we, as cinematic references, look at MY LIFE AS A DOG and FORREST GUMP. Other references I have are ABOUT SCHMIDT and AS GOOD AS IT GETS. This story should touch people’s hearts in both a feel-good, humorous as well as a dramatic way. This is a story about a life; a journey between laughter and tears, simple as life itself is.