We, The Infected

In 2008, Tomas Stark of GOMFILM co-wrote and directed a short film adaptation of JAL's short story Pappersväggar. He was kind enough to allow to post it on my web page, and also to provide with a file of English subtitles for it. It can be viewed with English subtitles here. I haven't read Pappersväggar, since it has never been published in English (but JAL promised that it may be in the "not-too-distant future"), so I can't vouch for how faithful an adaptation it is, but it is a nice short film. Many thanks to abner_mohl for digging this up.

It's big, so it may take a while to load for you. Your patience will be rewarded.

I'm not able to play the film, could it be something wrong with the link?

http://let-the-right-one-in.com/woofy/P ... rwalls.mov

direct link (save as).

drakkar wrote:I'm not able to play the film, could it be something wrong with the link?

Depending upon your bandwidth, it may take a while for it to start to start playing. I'm not set up for video streaming, so it won't start playing until it is all downloaded.

Ok now, probably was some set up issue on my work pc.

drakkar wrote:Ok now, probably was some set up issue on my work pc.

Drakkar, you have read Pappersväggar, right? Can you comment on what you think of this film adaptation?

... and before I search I'm guessing there's no English version of the story? After watching this I'm a little confused!

OK,
the background of the story, only hinted in book and film, is the nine years old boy, John, visiting his father at the countryside (heard that one before?).

The story is a snapshot, only a few pages long, it doesnt take more time reading it than watching the film.
The film is good, and pretty accurate. Until it approaches the end, where it unfortunately fails IMO.

In the book, John wakes up in the box at night, hearing movements in the distance. Pitch dark - he doesnt switch the flashlight on. He can hear something large approaching, about the size of a horse. He can hear its breath and its steps coming closer, and he can hear it is walking on two legs. The being stops outside the box, John feeling its presence. Then he (as in the film) reach out his hand, putting it on the cardboard wall (like Oskar's hand on the window). The being outside the box then strokes its hand(?) gentle over the cardboard, stopping right opposite John's. As in the film, you get the impression that the entity knows John is in there. Then it slowly leaves, and he can hear the steps as it walks away. The story ends at this point, with the words "Det hadde lämnat honom." (It had left him).

When I read the story first time, I got the association of a gentle giant or a troll paying him a visit (maybe because there is another short story about trolls in Paper Walls). Unforunately, the film fails in recreating the atmosphere from the book. Suddenly the being is there, and just as suddenly it is gone. The film uses a human hand on the outside to indicate this is some kind of a giant, but sorry, it doesn't come across to me. The end is not JAL either.

@ withinfocus: Correct, but the English translation is promised to be published "soon".

What I got from the film was that the boys mother had died, (somehow drowning got into my mind) he missed her, but then the castle in the sky through me for a loop.
But I think he was grieving for his lost mother and it was her who approached and put her hand to his, letting him know everything was alright.
Then, he sends the box to her via sea-mail.

Yeah, I'll have to read it. For anyone interested, there's a story I read a few years ago that I think was written very well by A.S. Byatt, "The Thing in the Forest". It has some similarities to this and I recommend checking it out. It's maybe 20 pages.