The Swedish experience

by Jay Gabler, TC Daily Planet • 11/22/08 • Studying in Australia for a few months in the mid-90s, I was party to any number of earnest conversations about “the true spirit of Australia” and the frustrations of being reduced, in the global imagination, to a kangaroo, a boomerang, and Paul Hogan. How could Australia convince the world, wondered politicians, activists, and academics, that it was more than just Men at Work on the stereo and some shrimp (er, prawns) on the barbie?

By the time the 2000 Olympics were held in Sydney, a consensus seemed to have been reached: why bother? The Games’ closing ceremonies featured Greg Norman teeing off from atop a giant shark, Elle McPherson scantily clad, Men at Work playing “Down Under,” and—yes—Paul Hogan, accompanied by alligators on Rollerblades.

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I’ve never been to Sweden, but I have to imagine that many Swedes are similarly tortured about the world’s snickering stereotype of blonde, buxom, booty-baring and beer-bearing Swedish women. On the one hand, this is demeaning and (I presume) largely inaccurate. On the other hand, as shamefully tokenistic national stereotypes go, well, you could do worse than being infamous for sexiness.

Thus the poster for The Swedish Experience, a film collection screening today and tomorrow at the doomed Oak Street Cinema. (All of a sudden it’s a big weekend for Swedish film in the Twin Cities.) The design winkingly acknowledges the world’s image of Sweden—complete with blue-and-yellow flower graphics—but with a fresh and inviting look that is happily consistent with another stereotype about residents of the country that brought us Ikea: they know a thing or two about design.