Beyond the Line of Duty
Salaligan was a group of Swedish young men, active 1930-1936, guilty of several murders and robberies. The leader was the charismatic Sigvard Nilsson-Thurneman. A wayward, confabulating hypnotist and criminal mind. Salaligans actions was shockingly brutal and clearly meaningless. They killed randomly, for petty cash, celebrating a fabricated cause. Per Berglunds film opens with a quote from the Norwegian writer Aksel Sandemose. 'I do not accuse man, I accuse the system which can not educate man to do otherwise than the inadequately and the wicked.' The director Per Berglund and the producer Stefan Jarl are anxious to insist that the film is not a documentary of Salaligan. Instead the film emphasis's the small towns narrow-mindedness and the psychological and social processes that enables a criminal phenomenon like Salaligan to occur in such a place. Den magiska cirkeln is a good example of a politically accurate Swedish film of the 70's.
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