MovieChat Forums > Masjävlar (2004) Discussion > Great film - Impossible for foreigners?

Great film - Impossible for foreigners?

posted 19 years ago by soylent_grey
17 replies | jump to latest

A really good swedish film, but is it stuck forever as a swedish film?
So much of the drama/humour is dependent on national references, and its clever use of language which I can barely imagine translating to english.
Of course many can relate to the whole countryside vs city issue, but this film is so poignantly stuck in stockholm/dalarna.
Can anyone to even start with, think of a good english translation for the title?

Promising work for a first time director, but maybe to swedish for its own good...?

[–] frankmoens 19 years ago

The title is translated as Dalecarlians.

Although I never heard from Dalarna and probably missed something in the whole Dalarna - Stockholm debate, I think most of us can relate like you said to city vs town mentality.

[–] nv98marjoh 19 years ago

I'm swedish and I watched this movie at the Minneapolis Internatinal Film Festival. It was pretty popular, and voted one of the best flicks of the festival. Some weird translations though, the whole Gunde Svan thing was subtitled as being Bjorn Borg, worked anyway.

[–] olssonm 19 years ago

Yeah, but with Gunde Svan it's something entirerly different than Björn Borg. If an American should watch this movie, it almost has to be dubbed, becouse the dialects is very important in this movie. Although I think the City vs. Town thing is around the whole world.

[–] batintherain 18 years ago

I watched this lovely film in Italian. I'm sure that, unluckily, having it dubbed, there's a lot lot missing (even if I must admit dubbers did a very good job this time), but the film is still very enjoyable.
One very disappointing thing: the film was distributed with the title "L'amore non basta mai" which means "Love is never enough". Very often ditribution companies kill the origianl title with the hope to attract more people to watch it (?). I think they shouldn't allow it, it's absolutley misleading.

[–] avedal 18 years ago

I've just seen the film in Italian (seen it in Swedish before since I'm Sweden) and the dubbing is not bad at all. The title of course (as always in Italy) has a very bad translation. "Masjavlar" is however not possible to translate. "Mas" is simply a person from Dalarna and "javlar" is like testa di cazzo or scemo or something like that in Italian... Of course it is also impossible to dub the dialects. Anyway, in general, the Italian dubbing is very good (even if I think that the whole dubbing thing destroys almost all films).

[–] james1971 18 years ago

Just watched the film as well - in Italian, since I am Italian. Have to agree with all the comments.

It was Bjorn Borg and I really wondered, whether those dubbers couldn't think about a more recent Swedish person well known in Italy -- looks like they couldn't, anyway.

By the way: a great movie, indeed!

[–] ikwal 17 years ago

the joke about Bjorn Borg is suppose to be about Gunde Svan who is a famous skier and TV personality and he's from Dalarna like the people in the movie.

I really liked this movie all the characters felt so real, best Swedish movie I've ever seen (Im a swede).

[–] drivingsouth 18 years ago

The movie is on screen now in Germany. They translated the title to "Zurück nach Dalarna!" which in English means "Back to Dalarna". I think the title is well choosen.

I cannot say anything about the synchronization, as I watched it in Swedish.

Bra film! Jag tyckte mycket om den...

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] William_Hunt 17 years ago

I watched it in Belgium where movies luckily are never dubbed (at least not in the Flemish part of our country). It was in competition at the Brussels filmfestival but didn't win any price (it was won by Dark Horse, a film from Iceland by Dagur Kari).

Anyway on the Björn Borg issue. There no dubbing but it was also translated as Björn Borg. I liked this movie a lot. The acting was very natural, excellent casting. Veinar was impressive and Mia lovely. The direction of this movie was very strong, especially for a debutante.

[–] autumn_rain05 17 years ago

I watched this today at my Swedish class (I´m from Finland) with it´s original voices and with Finnish subtitles (which was, by the way, weird because I´m used to watch films with Swedish subtitles when in Swedish course). I must admit, that at first I found it a bit boring and too complicating for me to understand (with all those characters, etc.), but then suddenly I started to like it. As I call myself a sort of Sweden-fan, I liked the language and the location of the film. Also the actors were great.

I would like to know what Masjävlar means... Someone could try to translate (for me you can try to explain it in Swedish as well)? I tried to use all my Swedish books but with no good results. :)

[–] christoffer-agstrand 17 years ago

"Mas" simply means "man/boy from dalarna" and "jävlar" (literally, devils) is of course a way of cursing. If you combine them both you get a common insult.

[–] stu_burton 17 years ago

Saw this last night on TV here in Sweden. Thought it was a very good film. I was very glad to have the Swedish teletext subtitles though - my Swedish is pretty good (I'm English) but the accents were really tricky. I had the same problem watching "F-ing Åmal" (the censor is turning the word into beep!). I imagine some of the references would be difficult to understand for someone not familiar with Swedish culture but as other posters have said the general themes of the film are universal. Anyone who has visited their home town after moving away will recognise some of the feelings that Mia has.

[–] Jonathan-18 17 years ago

Every book and movie loses something in its translation. The same goes for the piece's title (which might be different but better or more suitable in another language). However, if the movie's good and interesting, "foreigners" will appreciate it. Subtitles are always better than dubbing.

[–] TelAviv909 16 years ago

Not true.
i'm not Swedish and i enjoyed watching it.
everyone can relate to the subject of the movie.
and i must say that the acting was great especially Sofia Helin she is amazing!

[–] turizz 14 years ago

Yeah a great flick! And from my point of view it would be even greater as a foreigner.... and watching it dubbed, because that damn dialect those masjävlar are using are awefull! ;p

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[–] jim_ruuth 12 years ago

total crap movie, incredible bad one dimensional actors. hard to see if they where mad or joking around sometimes. just a lousy film.