In 1912, in times of social unrest, Jacob (Philip Zandén) is sent to a government minister’s (Etienne Glaser) summer residence as his new bodyguard, but he’s secretly plotting to assassinate the minister.

One of the director’s most lauded films also gained international attention. Most of it is a rich portrait of a boisterous, very emotional bourgeois family with an authoritarian minister as its head and three young adults (politically motivated but also detached from reality) who form relationships, sexual in some cases, with Zandén’s newcomer.

A lively cast in a highly charged film about power and what moves institutions. 

1990-Sweden. 108 min. B/W-Color. Directed by Suzanne Osten. Screenplay: Madeleine Gustafsson, Etienne Glaser, Suzanne Osten. Novel: Ricarda Huch (”Der letzte Sommer”). Cinematography: Göran Nilsson. Cast: Philip Zandén (Jacob), Etienne Glaser (Joel Birkman), Malin Ek (Livia Birkman), Björn Kjellman, Gunilla Röör, Lena Nylén, Reuben Sallmander. Voice of Rikard Wolff. 

Trivia: Original title: Skyddsängeln.

European Film Awards: Best Supporting Actress (Ek).

Last word: “It was tough for me when The Mozart Brothers, a positive, humorous film, became associated with the assassination [of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme]. Essentially, The Guardian Angel was my answer. It’s a film about political violence and a portrait of Sweden.” (Osten, Nordic Women in Film)