Lots of laughter and emotions in the new documentary film
Published 2024-02-29 10.21
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The last journey
Directed by Fredrik Wikingsson and Filip Hammar, with Fredrik Wikingsson, Filip Hammar, Lars Hammar.
MOVIE REVIEW. Sometimes you just have to give in. For the sake of love.
This applies to both father and son Hammar in this rare, moving documentary.
DOCUMENTARY. Time flies. It is striking when seen Lars Hammars videotaped farewell from the school where he has spent his professional life. He is sixty plus, looks sprightly and fresh. Being hugged by his students and receiving flowers from his colleagues. Stepping a little.
Fast forward a few decades. Lars Hammar looks considerably thinner and has become alarmingly lethargic. The wife Tina keeps up the pace with walking sticks, but Lars mostly sits at home and does nothing.
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full screen Lars Hammar, Fredrik Wikingsson and Filip Hammar in “The last journey”. Photo: Nordic Film
Filip remembers his childhood holidays by the sea in France where father Lars always lived up, like the Francophile that he is. The memories are strongly imprinted on Filip and he cannot bear to see Lars languish in his Belgian leather armchair.
It must be one last trip to France with dad. Then he will wake up to life and become himself again, Filip reasons. He acquires an old orange Renault 4, exactly the kind that the Hammar family used when they drove down to France in the 80s.
The car has seen better days. It doesn’t go fast; at one point in the film Filip states and Fredrik that it must be “Europe’s most overtaken car”.
Frederick, yes. The first thing Wikingsson does in the film is to ask Filip what his role in this adventure really is. But that’s how it works with this radar pair: they need each other to make things happen.
Take over the direction of the holiday
Manipulation becomes an important theme. Once they arrive in France, Filip takes over the direction of the holiday completely, while Fredrik gets to act as an assistant. All childhood memories must be recreated in detail, without Lars being told how crazy the manipulation is. It involves trains, parrots and bickering Frenchmen.
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full screenFilip and Lars Hammar. Photo: Nordic Film
Maybe it is that Lars needs to learn to be more active himself in order to find the spark in life. Perhaps it is also the case that Filip needs to learn that there is a limit to what the old, worn-out father’s body can handle. Sometimes you just have to let go of your stubbornness, both ways.
Feels a stab in the heart
No surprises per se, it’s a clearly directed film. The outcome feels a foregone conclusion from the start. But it makes you laugh and cry. We feel that stab in the heart that connects indelible childhood memories with the pain of watching time slip away. Why can’t we just freeze our parents back in time when everything was the best?
Feelings are so close to Filip’s skin. It is difficult to defend against that and you don’t want to.
Heavy and poignant in the depiction of aging – yet done with a light hand that skilfully enhances the charm of Lars Hammar’s dream of France. Filip and Fredrik are good at finding the disarmingly tragicomic.
The film opens in theaters on Friday, March 1.
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full screen “Nice people”. Photo: Sf
Also be sure to see…
… “Trevligt folk” (2015), another acclaimed documentary film where Filip and Fredrik contributed to the script.
Did you know that…
… Renault 4 became a sales success in Sweden in the 1960s thanks to an advertising campaign which claimed that the car is “not beautiful – but cheap and fast”?
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