Pensionat Oskar (1995)

The Runeberg family—father Rune, mother Gunnel, and their children Viktor, Kalle, and Lotta—live in a suburban villa district. Hypochondriac Rune holds family life in high regard and tries to live up to the ideal of a row-house idyll, among other things by building a sauna himself. But the love between the middle-aged couple has begun to fade. Their relationship is particularly troubled by the fact that the management position in product development Rune applied for was given to a younger man, despite Rune having worked there for ten years, and that Gunnel has meanwhile been given a management position at the Institute for Social Studies. Rune thinks Gunnel will neglect her duties as a mother, while she thinks Rune has become completely uninterested in her life. The family gets a chance to resolve all their problems and strengthen their bonds when they go on a summer holiday to Pensionat Oskar, where they rent a small cabin. On arrival, a young man on a flatbed moped helps them with their luggage. He is Petrus, the holiday village’s jack-of-all-trades. They also meet the pension’s manager, a somewhat hot-tempered and confused man who supervises every last detail of the place. Pensionat Oskar is set amid magnificent scenery, but to see the sea from the cabin, you have to stand on a chair. While Rune and the boys go swimming, Petrus approaches Gunnel, who is sunbathing. He asks how long she and Rune have been married. Gunnel wants to be left alone, but Petrus says it is not his fault that she no longer loves Rune. Rune makes an effort to have a happy holiday. Despite the torrential rain, he sets out on a hike to the sea. There he meets Petrus, who is bathing naked in the rain. Rune calls out that he cannot run around like that. It is both inappropriate and dangerous, since lightning could strike. He takes off his raincoat to warm and cover Petrus. At Petrus’s home, Rune is offered vodka and is enchanted by Petrus’s magic tricks. At the holiday village’s café, Rune gets back the raincoat he had absent-mindedly left at Petrus’s. The jack of hearts is in the pocket. Hjördis and Evelyn, two older women who are regular guests at the pension, come into the café. To Rune’s horror, middle son Kalle asks whether the women are homosexual. “Just a little,” they reply laconically. The pension manager, who is also the head waiter, observes, however, that “we’re all normal here.” After Petrus has been driving recklessly on his moped, Rune goes to reprimand him, but when he sees Petrus, he instead asks if Petrus can teach him some magic tricks. Petrus unexpectedly bites his hand, blows on it, and then walks away. One day, when the family is shopping at the store at Pensionat Oskar, they meet one of the guests, a man who is always dressed in a bathrobe and makes disparaging remarks about immigrants. Petrus, who is mopping the floor, gets angry and throws a wet floor rag in the man’s face. He contemptuously berates Rune for not doing anything. Gunnel also thinks Rune is a wimp; they argue and call each other old biddies. Rune daydreams on the beach. Gunnel knits him a sweater, and he quietly wonders how he could manage without his family. When the man in the bathrobe is about to take a picture to preserve the family idyll, Petrus passes by, juggling, and ruins the shot. Rune later meets Petrus, who is playing cards with Hjördis and Evelyn. They share their dreams of what they would like to become. Petrus wants to be a magician, and Rune reveals that he would have become an actor: he got into drama school but chose to finish his master’s degree in engineering first. While the family arguments continue around the dinner table, Rune is drawn to Petrus’s magic. After they go for a swim together in the evening, Petrus kisses him. Rune is tormented by existential questions and the homosexual tension. At night, he vomits into the toilet bowl. He has anxious outbursts and quarrels with his wife and children. But his love for Petrus soon takes over, and he spends more and more time with him under various pretexts. Rune admits to Petrus that he has never been so happy. Gunnel reproaches Rune for spending so little time with his family and for not wanting to take the youngest, Viktor, on a fishing trip with Petrus. She tries to make things right by arranging their customary cosy evening with shrimp and wine. But Rune has been invited to Petrus’s and goes there instead. Saying, “This is madness,” they undress. Suddenly, the pension manager knocks at the door. When Petrus refuses to open it, the manager breaks in and finds them naked. Rune makes his escape with a series of excuses. The next day, Rune decides he is ill and has to go home. He explains to Petrus that he is married, has three children, is twenty-five years older than Petrus, and does not know how he wants to live his life. Petrus says it is a crime to be a coward and that Rune will regret it for the rest of his life. The teenage daughter Lotta does not want to go home; she has fallen in love with a boy who wears glasses and whom she usually plays mini golf with. Back home a week earlier than planned, Gunnel explains to their astonished suburban neighbors that Rune has had a hypochondriacal episode. Gunnel starts her new job and tells the neighbor’s wife that the marriage is at least bearable. Rune dreams of the jack of hearts. One day, he stands up at a meeting and tells his colleagues that he has met someone else. He tells Gunnel the same thing, and she becomes even more upset when she learns that it is a man. Rune drives off with Viktor to look for Petrus. After trying to keep up the appearance that everything is normal, Gunnel breaks down and smashes and burns some of the furniture. Rune arrives at Pensionat Oskar, which is closed for the season. The manager tells him that Petrus left the day after they did. Wearing a suit, Rune goes swimming in the sea in the pouring rain. Viktor lectures him about how inappropriate it is to swim when it is raining, just as Rune had previously done to Petrus. Rune hugs Viktor. He has found what he was looking for: his freedom.