THE LAST SENTENCE EXPOSES HOW A HITLER CRITIC WAS FINALLY CENSORED
In a biopic about Professor Torgny Segerstedt (played by Jesper Christiansen), The Last Sentence (Dom över död man) reveals how his burning hatred of Adolf Hitler nearly got Sweden into war with Nazi Germany. With finely crafted editorials, he incurs the wrath of Hermann Göring, whom he avers was once a drug addict in a Swedish mental institution. While others in Sweden foolishly believe that Hitler could be tamed before the calamity of World War II, the professor-cum-editor-in-chief courageously pens the opposite, starting in 1933. Although he wants to keep writing in as caustic a manner as possible, Segerstedt is urged otherwise by close friends, including the foreign minister, the prime minister, and even the king (Jan Tsielius). Indeed, persuasive arguments seem as eloquent as his editorials. Directed by Jan Troell, the dialog does not explain how Swedish diplomacy cleverly managed to maintain neutrality, having been sandwiched between Soviet-occupied Finland and Nazi-occupied Denmark and Norway. Meanwhile, filmviewers learn that his personal life is complicated by a sexually frustrated wife (Ulla Skoog), dalliance with the Jewish owner of the newspaper where he works (Pernilla August), and ghost appearances of his mother (Johanna Troell). Filmviewers are tempted to infer that his secret life drives his compulsive writing. The black-and-white retrospective, based on the autobiography by Kenne Fant, has been nominated by the Political Film Society as best film exposé of 2014. MH