The director makes an admirable stab at merging complex issues with human interest. The well-trodden theme of Jews in an unfriendly setting is included in a manner that is refreshingly subtle and unsentimental - especially when contrasted with Spielberg's "Schindler's List" overkill - but then, the latter aimed at Americans with short memories and/or a long trip down "De Nile." As noted by another reviewer, the treatment of political issues is educational and significant. To make a long review short, I cared about these characters. While a lot of psychological/political/social content was crammed into the film, I cared enough about the protagonist and his family to be sorry to say goodbye.

The Slingshot brings together a number of very interesting themes and issues. Its particularly unusual to see a depiction of committed socialist activists that does not paint them as evil incarnate, but rather as normal folks. Because we in the US are so uncritically anti-socialist (in any form and any context, even historically), we miss out on a very vibrant part of European AND American cultural history. The movie hilariously contrasts the boy's party-line parents with his own hyper-capitalist tendencies. Even though the movie is set in Sweden, my suspicion is that it comes far closer to representing what working class people in the US experienced in the 20s and 30s than most Hollywood films, which tend to sentimentalize and de-politicize daily life. In addition, the sub-plot concerning the movement to legalize birth control is both really funny, and somewhat sobering. All in all, I imagine the political content of this film would upset a few very conservative viewers even today--perhaps a good thing?

I enjoy renting foreign movies. They are very different than the ones produced in the USA. This story was almost tragic as we see the young innocent boy in this story being harrassed by his schoolmates and misunderstood by all those around him. Good acting -- I liked the good guys and hated the bad guys in this. If you like movies about boys growing up and learning about the world, you will love this one.