A quick overview of Swedish film history, featuring a breathtaking cavalry of scenes from about 170 films.

Per is in love with Kerstin. They are high school classmates. In the distance they see teacher Eva Hallström, ph. d. and the headmaster's wife, return home to her home. She is currently a major topic of conversation because she has just published an acclaimed collection of love poems. Everyone is curious about who the young lover of the poems might be.

The story about Gustaf Dalén, the farm boy who became one of Sweden's greatest inventors.

"Lunch- Break Café" - A café in the old Klara district in Stockholm attracts an offbeat clientel. Among those who gather at the café is a prisoner on the run, a prostitute, a journalist and a student who is having an affair with the cafe's waitress. Naturalism.

In Stockholm in the year 2248 an excavation leads to the discovery of 45,000 meters of film from the 1940's master director Hasse Ekman . The material is in a disarray but the Society for Ancient Film Research compiles the material after what is believed to have been the master's artistic intentions

Midsummer Eve in Malmfors in the 1880s. The holiday is celebrated with a big party. Three blacksmiths leave the ironworks and become drifters, seeking out jobs elsewhere. During their travels, they come across beautiful girls as well as jobs in different ironworks, where the workers are organizing, monitored by a brutal police force.

As his 60th birthday approaches, Jacob grows concerned that none of his sons is capable of running his company.

A small-town piano teacher is shocked by the arrival of her foster daughter's real mother, whose young lover soon follows and causes further disruption.

Brita moves from the countryside and her parent's cabbage patch to work as a housemaid in Stockholm. The big city overwhelms her at first and she falls in love with a young man. But one day Arvid, an infatuated young man from the old village also comes to Stockholm to express his love for her.

A smalltime businessman gets himself into finance problems. His bank requires tangible proof of ability to pay. The businessman makes a drastic decision.

Maria is a waitress at a local restaurant when an older man propose to her. She is a bit skeptical but agrees to marry him and become the mistress of his estate Kvarngården. Maria had a son which she was forced to give away for adoption when he was born because she could not take care of him. She has keep contact with the child and posed as a kind aunt. She has not told her new husband about her son and when the years go by and no children of their own comes along the resentment and bitterness grows. When the adoptive mother of Maria's son dies she and the adoptive father agrees that the best thing for the boy is to come and stay with Maria at Kvarngården. She also hope that it will make her husband come out of his bitterness to have a young boy around. The result is unfortunately quite the opposite.

Ulla thinks her husband Billy is boring and starts dating other men. Lillans husband Peter is having important meetings, including girls. Billy and Lillan decides to pretend to be in love, to rouse jealousy of Ulla and Peter.

Iben Holt, a rich bohemian, lives in an occupied country. On his way home from a party he hears an explosion and sees flames rising from a factory. At home awaits another surprise.

Marianne is not very interested in love, but still has company with Bertil. It's only when he decides to try his luck over in America that she realizes how much she likes him.

Eva is a very talented and able college girl. In the summer she is going to work at a farm. There she meets a different world of unwanted children, desires and temporary relationships.

Brothers Fredrik and Pontus own a family company. Fredrik is the manager of the old school and Pontus is a professor of psychology, which theorizes that men is more intelligent than women. Astrid, a young woman, opposes these theories and Pontus decides to hires her, which Fredrik doesn't like. Astrid gets installed as in charge of advertising, and soon she begins her modernizations.

Inga and her father, the violin maker Lars, are big music enthusiasts. One day they meet the violinist Jan-Erik.

A young fisherman starts a business and climbs on the social ladder to avenge the man who plagued his parents.

The stern, but kind-hearted, Kristiana from the country takes place as a maid with the Larsson family in Stockholm, previously (in)famous for its rapid turnover of housemaids.

The schoolgirl Maj-Lis comes from a wealthy family and is unhappy with her life. Emmy, her friend at school, tells Maj-Lis about her lousy job at the Vidi department store. Maj-Lis then decides to apply for a job at Vidi to learn more.

A stateless lawyer comes with his son Karel and his two daughters Vanja and Sonja as refugees to Stockholm. No one gets work permit in Sweden and the family's problems grows to not just financially. The idleness and hopelessness towards the future is almost worse and that can lead into dangerous paths.

Eva Cullberg (Annalisa Ericson) wants to sing in a cabaret the local military company are arranging. But her mother (Tollie Zellman) and father (Carl-Gunnar Wingård) won't let her, so she pretends to be the nanny of her sister's child. Along the way she falls in love with Lt. Mandell (Björn Berglund).

Banking director Anders Berg in Gothenburg has found reason to terminate his former secretary Vivi Lundgren, who obviously did everything to vamp him.

Birgit Norén is the new teacher at a small town school and falls in love with the principal.

A couple in an 'all but perfect' marriage takes a one year time-out. When they reunite the husband realizes that his wife has changed drastically.

Comedy about medical student Klasson, who lives a triple life as a student, night club singer and a house maid.

A school kitchen teacher works on a farm under a fake name.

It's the last night of 1899. In Helsingfors they celebrate the new millennium. The students at the university are dancing and among them is Helge Ulfstjerna.

Jan Eriksson wins a vacation trip to a hotel in the mountains.

The bank employee Bertil falls in love with Margot. He does not know she is the bank director's daughter.

The opera singer Carlo Martin comes to the Royal Opera for a guest performance and the girls in the ballet immediately gets a crush on him. Martin courts one of them, Märta Holm, who is torn between Martin and her own fiancée Arne.

Orphan Didi is raised by her aunts and in love with her ward, the surgeon Dr. Gunnar Green. He is more interested in the stars of the theatre so Didi decides to fight for him.

It is rumored that there are ghosts at Smygeholm Castle.

A guest house in Stockholm. A group of music students hang out. Everyone is supposed to contribute with a composition. The comrades try to force Inga to play hers, but she refuses. She leaves for a walk. From a window she hear a melody.

When Halfdan’s old flame, Karina, comes to town, the reaction of his jealous wife Märthe begins to concern him. But Halfdan has no clue that they’re in fact childhood friends, and the two women agree to keep Halfdan in the dark for a little while longer. When Märthe is on her way out of town, Halfdan sees an opportunity to replace his jealous wife with an actress in order to impress Karina. Karina tells Märthe about the incident and they decide to teach Halfdan a lesson. (Stumfilm.dk)

The famous lawyer Juhani Leno lives in a gloomy castle far into the dark forests. As a son of a fool and an anonymous gentleman he had a bleak upbringing. Ever since then, all he is doing is relegated to the humanity that treated him so patronizing. His whole soul is obscured by a furious hatred.

The story is wacky – a gypsy is cursed by her father, so that she has to deny her illegitimate son in order for him to have a successful life. She gives him to a well-to-do lady who has lost her own child. Later, he has grown up to be a politician who wants to become the foreign minister. He doesn’t know that his real mother is the famous Madame de Thebes, the fortuneteller who all politicians make sure to visit! This information falls into the hands of a rival, who tries to use it to ruin his career. Meanwhile, the rival’s attractive daughter is attacked by a ruffian and needs to be rescued… There are a lot of striking images in this film. You can see the beauty of them even if the state of the print is far from perfect. The Norwegian actress Ragna Wettergreen gives a haunting performance as Madame de Thebes, with wisdom and regret – and quite a few melodramatic gestures. Understatement was not the norm in those days.

An old poor man steals some wood and gets sentenced to 1 1/2 years of hard labor.