Evil

Evil (Ondskan, 2003) is a Swedish-Danish drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Mikael Håfström and based on Jan Guillou's autobiographical novel. Stockholm, the mid-1950s. Sixteen-year-old Erik — played by Andreas Wilson — has been expelled from school for fighting one too many times. His stepfather beats him at home. He's sent to Stjärnsberg, an elite boarding school, as a last resort.

It offers no escape. The senior students run the place through a sanctioned system of humiliation and physical punishment that the faculty conveniently ignores. Erik knows how to hurt people. He decides, for once, not to — staying out of trouble is the only way to earn his diploma and give his mother a better life. That decision costs him daily. His friendship with fellow outsider Pierre and the quiet support of one observant teacher are the only things keeping him upright.

The film was Sweden's submission for the 2004 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and it earned that place. Håfström handles the cycle of inherited violence without ever softening it into sentiment. Stream Evil (2003) online on iFILM.