Out of an Old Man’s Head

Johan Björk, Hans Alfredson makes his way home to a run-down shack, surviving on a can of dog food meant for himself, when a careless man throws a pile of car tires that traps him beneath. His cries for help go unheard by most, save for one drunk, Rolf Bengtsson, who is later caught by the police when he tries to summon assistance. At night, a young couple making love on the tires notices him, and they lend a hand to lift him free and escort him back to his home. He sustains a leg injury and comes to an aching realization that he can no longer manage on his own, which leads to him being placed in a retirement home.

In the retirement home, Johan sits in a wheelchair, gazing out the window while a murmur of memories plays out in a moving flashback. He remembers growing up in the countryside, where a strong father and a mother who loved to bake shaped his early world. He was tormented by a boy named Evert, even as he carried a quiet affection for Evert’s sister. During his confirmation, Evert knocked him down, ruining the dresses of the girls with sacramental wine, an humiliation that Eddie’s sister laughed at, pushing him to flee to Stockholm.

There, he works as a mason, lugging bricks and bottles of beer to a foreman who drinks one bottle for every brick laid. In his loneliness, Johan fantasizes about women, and he makes his first foray into a brothel. He grows a moustache and visits an amusement park with two friends — Sven Karl-Axel Forssberg and a man from Värmland whose name he struggles to recall — as they flirt with girls and share in the humor of minor mishaps, including a failed attempt to kick a can to mask a fart.

A nurse then returns him to reality to give him his medicine, and Johan drifts into thoughts of grand schemes, imagining a pyramid of money that would yield thousands of whiskey bottles and a life of Monte Carlo luxury, all while being pursued by gangsters.

His mind travels again to thoughts of the past, touched by death as he contemplates his deceased parents. He also receives a letter from his son, who left for America many years earlier because Johan hadn’t been a particularly successful father. The son asks for money, and Johan imagines what those American things in the letter might look like.

Back in the present, the city blocks he once helped build are being demolished to make way for modern plans. He summarizes his own life with a quiet hopelessness: poverty strained his relationships, his son ran away, and his wife died. He bonds with Sven once more at the retirement home, and the two men drink together to dull the pain of memory and the weight of regret.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 12:29