In the light of the province: Carl Slättne and his films

This article presents the work of Swedish film-maker and independent producer Carl Slättne (b. 1937) and analyses his film Urskogen eller kulturen!/‘Wilderness or Civilization!’ (1985). The film is discussed in relation to the concept of the essay film as it has been developed in recent writings by Laura Rascaroli and Timothy Corrigan. The formal devices of Slättne’s film are analysed and put into a cultural context, where the œuvre of the film-maker is discussed as well as the Swedish political documentary since the 1970s. In focus for the formal analysis is the use of contrastive editing. The voice-over – an important device for Slättne – is further discussed in order to put the authorial voice of the film in context. Slättne is compared to contemporaries like Eric M. Nilsson.