The 40 most popular 1980s swedish movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.
Prima ballerina
Prima ballerina
1989 · 20m · SE
A little girl's three wishes, which is not exactly what her mother had expected.


The Last Bid
1981 · 2h · SE
The working class couple, Roger and Lisette, knows that it is impossible to live an honest life in a society of thieves. When they succeed in scoring the top result on the football pools without earning the top money, they have had enough.


Fanny and Alexander
1982 · 3h 8m · SE
As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.


The Sacrifice
1986 · 2h 29m · SE
Alexander, a journalist, philosopher and retired actor, celebrates a birthday with friends and family when it is announced that nuclear war has begun.


Enligt beslut
1988 · 1h 48m · SE
About the refugee Carlos who has just been told he can't stay in Sweden, and about the civil servants handling his case.


Gråtvalsen
1983 · 57m · SE
"Crocodile tears" - Fellowship is replaced by suspicion and hatred in a Stockholm suburb. Wheelchair-bound retiree Hugo lives with his wife and his mentally unstable son.


Stockholmsnatt
1987 · 50m · SE
The film is loosely based on a true story about Paolo Roberto, later a professional boxer and TV presenter. Because of his Italian roots, Paolo is dealing with an identity crisis. With an admiration of Kung Fu films and with his teenage aggressions, Paolo practices violence on innocent citizens in Stockholm.


My Life as a Dog
1985 · 1h 42m · SE
A boy, obsessed with comparing himself with those less fortunate, experiences a different life at the home of his aunt and uncle in 1959 Sweden.
Jacob smitaren
Jacob smitaren
1983 · 1h 20m · SE
Jacob Andersson’s alcoholism leads to his wife leaving him together with their daughter.


Highest Jump
1989 · 28m · SE
A family movie about Albin and Stig who are always competing against each other.


Mördare! Mördare!
1980 · SE
No overview available


Framed
1988 · 1h 41m · SE
Conny is a chemistry teacher who is framed for drug possession. Unable to prove his innocence he ends up in prison. When he finds a secret exit some inmates "persuade" him to participate in a heist. Things become extremely hectic as he tries to prove his innocence as well as "helping" his inmates. When Conny thinks that it couldn't possibly get any worse he meets Susanne, a policewoman...


Syndabocken
1980 · 2h 15m · SE
"The Black Sheep" - Edvard Libotz, a young lawyer arrives in town, after failing to work as a High Court notary. He now plans to open his own agency. But he is different, looks foreign, is dark haired like a gypsy, and becomes very unpopular with the locals and the City prosecutor. By August Strindberg, published in 1907.


Brenda Brave
1989 · 34m · SE
Brenda Brave gladly helps her grandmother to sell candy canes at the market square. But one day grandmother suffers from a sore leg. Brenda has to take care of the candy cane sales all by herself.


Fröken Julie
1981 · 47m · SE
Birgit Cullberg's 1950 dance adaptation of Miss Julie was the breakthrough for modern dance in Sweden. 30 years later one of her sons plays the role of Jean in this adaptation for TV.


Stängda dörrar
1981 · 1h 40m · SE
Inès, Estelle, and Garcin are condemned to be together in a single room and soon start arguing and accusing each other.


Intergirl
1989 · 2h 23m · SU
A hospital nurse becomes an "international girl" — a prostitute who caters to foreigners with hard currency.


After the Rehearsal
1984 · 1h 14m · DE
Rational, exacting, and self-controlled theater director, Henrik Vogler, often stays after rehearsal to think and plan. On this day, Anna comes back, ostensibly looking for a bracelet. She is the lead in his new production of Strindberg's A Dream Play. She talks of her hatred for her mother, now dead, an alcoholic actress, who was Vogler's star and lover.


War Dog
1987 · 1h 35m · SE
An unsuspecting hero gets involved in uncovering a super soldier terrorist group that has brainwashed his brother.


Sweetwater
1988 · 1h 57m · NO
Allan and Lisa flee the war-torn city of Sweetwater with their young son for the safety of the municipal dump in this sleepy war drama. They join other displaced survivors who were driven from their homes, looking for a better life on the outskirts of Sweetwater.


Very Dearest Sister
1988 · 30m · SE
Barbro has a sister in secret, a twin sister named Ylva-Li. Ylva-Li lives under a rose bush, but not any rose bush. It is Salikos roses. When Barbro feels lonely and like her family doesn't care about her she can disappear into the hole under the roses. This day, Barbro and her sister are going on a journey. A long journey to the most beautiful valley in the world.


Bakom jalusin
1984 · 1h 37m · DK
A Swedish writer is visiting Morocco. At his hotel, he stays next door to an Italian couple. He becomes obsessed with the woman, spying and following her. One night she knocks on his door.


One-Week Bachelors
1982 · 1h 39m · SE
Gary's wife goes away for a week and Gary expects a week of hard work at the office. After having left her at the airport, he misses the bus. But the car mechanic Lasse gives him a ride. Although they are unlike each other, they get to know each other. Gary makes a mess of everything and can't avoid Lasse.


The Farewell
1982 · 1h 30m · FI
Set between 1930s and 50s, The Farewell the story of Valerie, who lives in a household totally repressed by her stern father. When Valerie has a brief affair with another woman, her father is extremely angry and tries to end the affair with physical force. However Valerie’s determination, independence and lesbian feelings cannot be crushed.


Höjdhoppar'n
1981 · 1h 35m · SE
35-year old Erik Engman, aka Pinnen, is the local fool. He picks up garbage and eats at the old people's home. One day he is asked to try the high-jump at the sport's field. He becomes fascinated and starts to train every day. Being fool-hardy, it doesn't take long before he is one of the best in the country and is asked to compete at the Stockholm Stadion.


The Architecture of Doom
1989 · 1h 59m · SE
Featuring never-before-seen film footage of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, The Architecture of Doom captures the inner workings of the Third Reich and illuminates the Nazi aesthetic in art, architecture and popular culture. From Nazi party rallies to the final days inside Hitler's bunker, this sensational film shows how Adolf Hitler rose from being a failed artist to creating a world of ponderous kitsch and horrifying terror. Hitler worshipped ancient Rome and Greece, and dreamed of a new Golden Age of classical art and monumental architecture, populated by beautiful, patriotic Aryans. Degenerated artists and inferior races had no place in his lurid fantasy. As this riveting film shows, the Nazis went from banning the art of modernists like Picasso to forced euthanasia of the retarded and sick, and finally to the persecution of homosexuals and the extermination of the Jews.


Ronia: The Robber's Daughter
1984 · 2h 6m · SE
Ronia lives happily in her father's castle until she comes across a new playmate, Birk, in the nearby dark forest. The two explore the wilderness, braving dangerous Witchbirds and Rump-Gnomes. But when their families find out Birk and Ronia have been playing together, they forbid them to see each other again. Indeed, their fathers are competing robber chieftains and bitter enemies. Now the two spunky children must try to tear down the barriers that have kept their families apart for so long.


The Flight of the Eagle
1982 · 2h 20m · DE
The Swedish 19th century engineer Salomon August Andrée sets out to become the first man on the north pole. His idea is to launch a polar expedition using a hydrogen balloon, together with two friends. The balloon, "The Eagle", takes off from Svalbard in 1897, but the three men are never heard from again.


Dirigenterna
1987 · 1h 20m · SE
Six women have entered a male world - the orchestra conductors. The doubtfulness against female conductors and musicians in the world of classical music becomes clear during a visit to the Vienna Philharmonic. Conductors Sixten Ehrling and Jorge Mester comment on the prevailing conservative attitudes among colleagues.


The Jönsson Gang & Dynamite Harry
1982 · 1h 46m · DK
Sickan, Vanheden and Rocky try to rob the Berns nightclub one night, but Vanheden has made the mistake to invite his constantly drunk cousin, the old dynamiter Dynamite-Harry and he ruins the plan. Sickan is arrested, and has to spend 10 months in a small, locked room. When he is released, he has a new plan, but Rocky and Vanheden have decided to go straight. Together with Dynamite-Harry, Sickan plans to rob a cold store, managed by their arch-enemy, Wall-Enberg.


Splittring
1984 · 1h 34m · SE
Ömer lives with his family in a suburb of Stockholm. One of his sons, Kemal, respect his father's strict authoritarian and traditional Muslim values. The other Metin wants to live for more liberal norms. A conflict between the two brothers arise.


Spanska flugan
1983 · 2h 10m · SE
The Spanish fly is the name of a varieté artist who for some 24 years ago had a son. Now the son pops up looking for his dad.


Räven
1986 · 1h 19m · SE
Young man, on suspicion of arson, escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the home of his parents.
Abbalett
Abbalett
1984 · 59m
Modern ballet set to the music of ABBA.


Med Lill-Klas i kappsäcken
1983 · 1h 48m · SE
The siblings Niklas and Anneli must accompany their slightly giddy aunt Tinne to the Zoo in Copenhagen. The visit to the zoo has quite different consequences than Aunt Tinne has ever dreamt of. When the children win a real pony in a lottery they have to bring it home to Stockholm without anyone noticing.


The Children of Noisy Village
1986 · 1h 30m · SE
The story of the children who live in Bullerbyn, Sweden, through the spring and summer months.


Spårvagn till havet
1987 · 1h 15m · SE
The bohemian filmmaker and composer Manfred is plagued by an event in the past. At the age of sixteen, his father died. When Manfred was coming from Karlsruhe with his father's grave urn, to spread ashes over the ocean, the tram collided.


Pirates of the Lake
1987 · 1h 43m · SE
It is the first day of the summer vacation. Jojje, Jerker and Fabian wants to borrow a sailing boat to take a boat trip so they steal it. They plan to examine all of Lake Maelaren, but a storm breaks out and the boat sinks. They go ashore, steal food and a new boat. While everybody else believes them to be dead, they have a wonderful time. They meet a crazy Count and find a dead body.


Träsmak
1985 · 1h 12m · SE
A sketch show by Swedish comedy group Aftershave och Galenskaparna.


Sista leken
1984 · 1h 37m · FI
In this somber, psychological drama about the conflict between a man's innermost feelings and a society that puts these feelings in a strait jacket, the mood is ruminative and depressing throughout. Alone, Viktor (Sven Wolter) heads off for his usual summer vacation to some islands where he can ostensibly look for antiques for his wife's shop in Stockholm. His marriage is a failure or worse -- he raped his wife before he left home, and he is obsessed by erotic imaginings. Once on the islands, he makes friends with a little girl whose mother is mentally disturbed and is kept by her husband in a locked room. The islanders are as tight-lipped as Viktor, and any communication is stiff and artificial. Viktor's own alienation begins to slip as he takes surprising, violent action to turn around the imprisoned mother's life -- but it does not work, nothing seems to work -- and his last actions indicate that he may not be willing to simply give up.
The 1980s codified the blockbuster — high concept, wide release, heavy merchandising — while home video quietly built a second life for films that flopped in theaters. Practical effects hit their peak just before CGI arrived.
Swedish cinema is inseparable from Ingmar Bergman, whose chamber dramas set an international benchmark for psychological seriousness. The country also anchors the Nordic noir tradition that reshaped European crime storytelling.