"Bödeln Och Skökan" which means "The Executioner and The Harlot" is an infamous Swedish period drama from 1986. Its is directed by Hrafn Gunnlaugsson (When The Raven Flies) and based on a novel by Ivar Lo Johansson. SVT which is the biggest public owned TV station in Sweden, has recently made a lot of classic TV productions viewable online on their website, and among them is this movie.It is an extremely dark tale about a Blacksmith in the early 18th century who gets innocently accused of theft and sentenced to death. By circumstance, he is pardoned, if he agrees to take over as the new executioner. He agrees of course, and soon he is hated by the entire village as executioners were during that time. At the local brothel he meets a beautiful young prostitute named Ursula whom he falls madly in love with. But is she really who she seem to be?Swedish public television had almost never before shown something this violent and with this amount of disgusting imagery. The scene where the executioner first enters the brothel is nauseating. A bunch of dirty, decrepit peons are sitting around and loudly eating what looks like raw chicken with their bare hands, while the fat naked prostitutes are tending to their equally fat and naked customers in explicit detail. Stephanie Sunna Hockett was underage when shooting this movie, and yet she is seen completely naked and share some rather risqué scenes with Niklas Ek.If Hrafn Gunnlaugsson was inspired by Samurai movies and Westerns when he made his Viking films, then this one is more reminiscent of British Renaissance-era Horror/Drama like "Witchfinder General". The normally scenic Gotlandic landscape is wreathed in fog and darkness, as the black-clad Reeves are riding by with a wagon full of prisoners behind them. The chopping block is perpetually smeared in blood as the executioner swings his sword to the delight of the cheering crowd. Visually impressive as this movie is though, it is very lacking in the acting department. Niklas Ek does not convey the proper emotions i would expect to find in a person faced with such a horrible fate as him. Stephanie Susanna Hockett is very poorly dubbed which also takes away from the experience. There is also a whole bunch of weird "Monty Python and The Holy Grail" type humor at some points in the movie, like when the executioner is having a party with his three work colleagues and they are all sharing funny anecdotes from their work or the Igor-like tongueless jester who has been accompanying all the executioners in the cabin. This movie has a strong story and Gunnlaugssons usual keen visual sense, but the mediocre acting and random silly parts really keep it from raking among his best.

In 2010 this film was released on DVD in Iceland under this title. Hrafn Gunnlaugsson shows us the story of the blacksmith from the 17th century (truely from Early Modern times, but that's no problem here, because the director shows us Europe as traditional society). By the twist of fate former honest blacksmith turns into the executioner, meets his love, but the life in that epoch is too complicated and means of solving problems are too cruel and too simple. Hrafn was influenced by the paintings of Rembrandt and films by Bergman and Tarkovsky. The director recreated the atmosphere of the epoch very impressive. Though this film shows us the dark sides of our life, it was made with true humane feelings.