The Last Contract - (Sista Kontraktet, 1998)Background and Review by Anna
Not long ago, I think it was last October or so, I became once again quite interested in the Palme-murder, as there had been some development in the case. Though it is unlikely that the police will ever find the murderer, it seems that someone is still investigating the matter quite thoroughly, and there’s certainly an interest to the topic since every year at least one book relating to Palme is published.
Last October they found the murder weapon. Still, that didn't account for as being a really groundbreaking development as it only confirmed that it really was the weapon, nothing more. Makes you really wonder why it took so many years to find it. Was there a conspiracy? Is there a conspiracy? Will we ever know the truth?
The police have been accused of being slow and ineffective. First suspect was known as the ’33-year old’, however, not enough evidence was produced. I remember his name being Viktor Gunnarsson or something like that.
Palme’s wife, Lisbet, identified a different person a few years later – a ’44-year old’. Later he, Christer Pettersson, was found guilty in a trial in 1989 but later freed due to lack of evidence. Then again in 2001 he told someone that he had actually killed Palme, but when questioned later, he denied it.
There’s been nearly as many interpretations of the events as there are people doing research. Also, there’s been lots of suspects as one might assume and one interesting twist to the story was in 1996 when a South African policeman claimed that his former colleague called Craig Williamson organised the murder.
No one knows for sure what happened, but the film gives a great interpretation of what might have happened. The book that the film is based on was published under a pseudonym John W. Grow.
Olof Palme was a controversial character in Swedish politics. He was a Social Democratic Prime Minister twice, first from 1969 to 1976 and from 1982 until his death in 1986. He criticised the US heavily during the Vietnam war (a very famous speech in which he almost compares Nixon to Hitler and Stalin, because of the Christmas bombings in Hanoi) and also wanted to make the whole of the Nordic Countries a nuclear-free zone. That didn’t bring many friends did it? Not during the Cold War anyway, especially when he was also opposing apartheid and applauding PLO and Fidel Castro.
The film opens at a children’s playground in 1986. It’s been some months after the murder in Stockholm. Roger Nyman’s (Mikael Persbrandt) best friend Bosse (Reine Brynolfsson) is being talked over to have a chat with him in order to find out what he has to say – or what he knows. Cut to some TV footage of Olof Palme. Then some talking between Roger and Bosse and after that, "Last Contract" (well, it’s actually in Swedish so it reads Sista Kontraktet.) Any case, cut to Johannesburg in 1985 where our man, John Gales – Ray Lambert (MK) is finishing off his latest assignment.
Back in Sweden, Roger Nyman is being shot at a nightclub in Stockholm, and subsequently is offered a job at the secret police. Later in London the Swedish authorities (whoever they might be) contact Gales-Lambert and he flies to Stockholm. Roger Nyman gets interested in this man who calls himself John Gales, because it turns out that the John Gales in question has been dead for a number of years.
Gales hangs out at a press club, meets a female journalist, Lisa (Cecilia Ljung) who happens to play tennis. Gales also starts gathering people around him that might be of use later – A corrupt journalist, Max Berg (Leif Andrée) who will later get information he needs, A Swedish nazi-party leader, a drug-addict and so on. He also makes a day trip to Norway to hire an assistant, Tom Nielsen (Björn Floberg)
That’s when Roger finds out where Gales lives, however, he’s still quite unsure what Gales is really up to - until Gales and Nielsen fail to kill Palme at the Royal Tennishall. Then Nyman starts to understand what Gales is planning. Surprisingly, the head of the Swedish secret police doesn’t quite believe in his claim. His home life suffers, his Volvo won’t start... the latter alone can drive weaker men over the edge. However, Roger doesn’t give up.
Unbeknownst to him Swedish bigwigs like Peter Bark (Mathias Henrikson) are talking to all sorts of NATO and US officials about Sweden and Sweden’s aspirations about the nuclear-free zone and Palme’s role in that. One gets the feeling that Bark is not entirely for the idea of a nuclear-free zone or Palme’s policies for that matter.
Gales on the other hand remains as cool as ever, planning the next move. He knows his house is bugged - poor Roger moved one of his chess pieces while bugging the apartment... but he doesn’t talk much anyway, only when needed and never in his apartment. Around the same time the relationship with Lisa is becoming a bit of a hindrance, she's asking questions like ‘why is the police following you’ and so on. Something must be done.
Meanwhile, it’s already February 28, 1986 - Roger is on his happy husband mode and he and his wife Nina (Pernilla August) are shopping with the kids (I haven’t mentioned this earlier in the review, but there are lots of scenes with Roger and his family – birthday parties and so on, lots of singing in Swedish) Anyway, of the three children, the youngest boy is left alone and Gales-Lambert walks into scene (that lovely smile in one of the caps!) and takes the boy to the photo-booth, a sort of an statement by Gales that you don’t mess with him.
Well, then Gales-Lambert has once again gathered a crowd of all sorts of people around Sveavägen and Tunnelgatan (the street corner where the murder took place, Tunnelgatan is now called Olof Palmesgatan. The place is really centrally located in Stockholm and Sveavägen is one of Stockholm’s main streets.) There’s the nazi-party leader once more, the drug-addict (a sort of an act in for Christer Pettersson) and so on.
The shooting took place at 23.21. I don’t want to spoil the last confrontations but can mention that the beginning of the end starts when Roger comes to Gales’ apartment – wonderfully powerful scene where Roger says something to the effect that ‘you just don’t kill a prime minister in Sweden’ only seconds later hearing that he has been killed.
The ending is action-packed and lots of unexpected things happen, Gales lets Roger live but the paranoia stays on and I have to say that when I first saw the film I was really impressed by the plot, I mean that could have happened. It made perfect sense to me, well, maybe the government conspiracy was a bit too much but still - Lots of great MK moments, Good actors all round and great cinematography by Kjell Lageroos (have to mention that he’s Finnish) Before the credits roll, there’s a great quote from a book about the murder, a really thorough research with over 800 pages of text.
"The Illusion that the authorities in the Western democracies follow laws and rules must be preserved. In a democracy, the illusion is the most important thing." - K. & P. Poutiainen in Inuti Labyrinten (1995) (= inside the labyrinth)