More about Bolderburen – Mer om oss barn i Bullerbyn (1987)

Directed by: Lasse Hallström | 95 minutes | family | Actors: Linda Bergström, Henrik Larsson, Crispin Dickson Wendenius, Ellen Demérus, Anna Sahlin, Harald Lönnbro, Tove Edfeldt, Sören Petersson, Ann-Sofie Knape, Ingwar Svensson, Elisabeth Nordkvist, Bill Jönsson, Catti Edfeldt, Louise Ræder, Peter Dywik Olof Sjogren, Ewa Carlsson, Lasse Ståhl, Britta Sterneland, Nina Englund, Sigfrid Eriksson

Shortly after his first Astrid Lindgren film adaptation ‘The children of the Bolderburen’, Lasse Hallström made the second part of the experiences of the six Swedish children.

Winter is coming and the kids are sad it won’t snow. But on an almost magical morning, Lisa wakes up to find the Swedish landscape – even in rain showers beautiful – covered with a layer of snow. It provides fantastic images of an idyllic setting and homesickness for people who once did the same things in such a snowy landscape as Lisa, Olle, Bosse, Lasse, Britta and Anna do in this film. As in the first part, there is no real storyline in ‘Meer over de Bolderburen’, they are separate chapters that are mounted one after the other, thanks to the course of the seasons there is a clear chronological line, but otherwise the scenes are interchangeable .

Also in this second part, the three girls and boys next door experience many adventures. They end up in a snow storm and have to take shelter with the gruff, drunken shoemaker, from which Olle got his dog Swip in the previous film. Fortunately the father of Lisa, Lasse and Bosse soon comes to pick them up and all six children can take place on the plow. The tough and reckless Lasse skates in a hole during the Christmas party, which makes for an exciting scene, but it never really sparkles. ‘Meer over de Bolderburen’ remains an uninhibited, honest film, which paints a picture of a wonderful and carefree childhood in Sweden at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The experiences of the children take up most of the playing time, although there are supporting roles for the parents, the aforementioned shoemaker, Anna and Britta’s grandfather and the maid Agda and servant Oskar, who are already surrounded by each other in the first film. were running, but also did not come together in this film. In this film too, the children put on a convincing performance and it is clear that they often only needed a little push to play their characters. Hallström often lets the camera just observe, which has a natural effect. Every now and then he goes a bit too far in this, which is apparent from the too long giggles scene. Wonderful to see, that unrestrained fun, but as part of this film its effect has disappeared after a few bursts of laughter. However, these are only minor blemishes on an otherwise flawlessly executed film adaptation of the popular book by one of the greatest children’s book authors of the last century. Highly recommended if only for the beautiful images of beautiful Sweden.