Shadow Boys

Arne, Per, Christoffer, Olle, Memo, Olof, Anders – they are sexual delinquents, mother murderers, child abusers, living in the closed mental ward of a penitentiary. There, time passes slowly. In the recreation room, as well as in their solitary confinements, each one is thrown back on his own problems, and again and again, in fragments of confessions, the discomposure over the crimes they committed involuntarily shines through – without ever reaching the point where they get a clue about their motives. Norén gives these "shadow boys" an outline, by letting them speak for themselves. Arguments within the group alternate with "fragmentary self-questioning ... solo appearances in isolated monads of eeriness. Less admissions of guilt, but rather honest and painful attempts to put themselves inside the outrageousness of what happened, approaching the periphery of the criminal enterprise.» (Theater heute)