All posts by kul65

“No more dismemberments”

I was about ten or eleven when I came across a movie playing on TV that I don’t know why I watched or how I was allowed to watch, but I did. It had this eerie mood all over it, of despair, realism.

It’s about a boy or a teenager, I think, who in the beginning moves through some poor nation or a war zone, or something the like. He has a friend with him, I think. He/they go somewhere they’re not supposed to be, and this boy does not seem well-adjusted. Somehow, I think they get separated from their home and from that point on, I can’t remember what happens to the supposed friend.

I don’t recall much from the middle of the movie, but I know that later on, he is being taken in by a young woman, who protects him or what-not. She may be a nanny or someone from his past. Possibly even a sister. At night, something causes him to snap and he murders that woman. This scene was very unsettling for me as a child, but I do not recall whether it was graphic or not. I did not at the point understand what exactly was happening.

Cut to the ending of the movie, the boy, now grown up is being released from prison or a mental asylum. He walks out along-side the warden, who says something like “… and no more dismemberments now, okay.” (Loosely translated from Swedish subtitle that I do recall).

That’s all I remember. I have been looking for this movie forever, because I feel I need to make sense of whatever that was I came across in my childhood. I watched it about 10 years ago, or something therearound, so it’s not a new movie.

The closest I’ve gotten while searching I think is “Perfume: Story of a Murderer”, but it is not that movie. This one felt a lot more realistic and grounded.

I think the boy may have had red hair, not because I recall a boy with red hair, but because I recall the aged version of him at the end with red hair or something the like. I am red-green color blind, so this is not a reliable description, but I thought I’d mention it anyway. Looking at and half-recognizing the main character in “Perfume” made me realize he doesn’t have to have had even bright hair, but I think, I think he did.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. I just want to find this movie so I can move past it.