Laika, the Russian dog, has journeyed into space, only to die of starvation; Sweden is obsessed with Ingemar Johansson fighting for the world heavyweight championship; and Johansson's 12-year-old namesake is living out his tragi-comic childhood amidst the household of his cheerfully eccentric uncle in this charming, insightful Swedish film which was quite rightly nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Film of its year. Highly recommended for its uniformly excellent performances - especially that of Anton Glanzelius, as the boy, and Tomas von Bromssen, as nutty Uncle Gunnar, driving his wife crazy with his record of, of all things, I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts.

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