The Ice Dragon (Isdraken)

Sweden 2011, 77 min, Swedish, age recommendation: 10 years and up

Mik is proud of the fact that his father, the drummer of a somewhat has-been rock band called the Motherfuckers, is about to go on tour. But he is covered in embarrassment when he sees his father staggering drunkenly about suburban Stockholm. Mik’s mother is dead and although he enjoys watching zombie films with him otherwise his big brother has completely different interests. After school Mik likes to go to the Museum of Natural History to listen to the sound of the whales singing. And at night this eleven-year-old cooks a meal for the family. One day Mik’s father collapses and is sent to a clinic to dry out. Stepping in to look after Mik, the youth welfare people don’t get off on the right footing at all. Mik is reluctantly sent to his Aunty Lena who lives in a remote village in the north of Sweden. There are only twelve children in the whole school but at least there is Pi and her hip hop gang. They’re cool. In the midst of this snowy landscape Mik’s thoughts drift time and again to the whales; he’s fascinated by way they manage to keep in contact with each other all their lives. No sooner has Mik begun to settle in and even enjoy village life than the welfare people turn up to take him away to live with a foster family.