The precariousness of Jewish visibility: Surviving antisemitism in Swedish cinema

Abstract

The article examines Jewish ‘self-images’ in Swedish post-war film. Before World War II, antisemitic caricatures were prevalent in Swedish film and visual culture. Following the Holocaust, Jews as such were virtually erased from Swedish screens. Written by and starring Marie-Louise Ekman, Hallo Baby (Bergenstråhle 1976) was a rare exception, the first Swedish post-war film to explore Swedish-Jewish identity. The 2002 comedy Livet i 8 bitar (Bit by Bit) (Metzger) remains the last of only a handful of films to fit said description. Significantly, both films draw heavily on established antisemitic tropes in their figurations of ‘Jewishness’. Through historically contextualized readings of the two films, including their reception, the article thus shows how the tradition of antisemitic caricature that prevailed until World War II has continued to condition Jewish self-representation in the post-war era.