In 1931, the working-class family Andersson of Ådalen are taking part in a massive sympathy strike for workers in the town Marma.

He plays in a jazz band with his friend Nisse with whom he also discusses things like girls, erogenous zones and hypnosis.

Harald takes care of an injured strikebreaker, but is confronted by a group of angry workers.

When Kjell is told about the abortion by Anna's father, he interprets it as if he isn't accepted within the bourgeois idyll.

While Kjell is occupied as a strike guard, he meets the man who had previously argued with his father.

So when the violence erupts, we don’t really understand its political significance – we’re left 'appreciating' it, in a rather embarrassed way, for its pictorial values.

It won the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association.