Marco van Bergen | Jag är Polisen (I’m the Police) / 2014

two outsiders

by Douglas Messerli

 

Marco van Bergen (screenwriter and director) Jag är Polisen (I’m the Police) / 2014 [15 minutes]

 

It is a warm day in Southern Sweden, Kieran Toussaint (Tobias Kersloot), a Dutch student, is wandering a back road on his way back to the University of Gothenburg. We have absolutely no idea what he is where he is or where he has been. When he finally takes out his hitchhiking sign from his back pack, a police car goes speeding by. Other cars can’t be bothered to stop.

    Kieran walks slowly forward, cigarette in mouth only to suddenly find the police car that previously passed him, stopped along the road, evidently having run out of radiator coolant. A young policeman, Lasse Kristensen (Jochum van der Woude) is fooling around with the engine, clearly inexperienced with its parts.

   Kieran walks up to the young blond policeman who responds (in English) that he’s not allowed to pick up hitchhikers when he’s on duty. He soon closes the front hood and opens the trunk, from which he pulls out a small collapsible warning stanchion, commanding Kieran to watch the car as he walks several yards away and places the stanchion on the road.

    He returns, asks where Kieran his from—he answers the Netherlands and explains that he is attending Göteborgs universitet—and suggests that the Dutch student might wish to join him as he forcibly treads forward, one might say almost marches off, to the nearest gas station.

    On the way he explains that he is a recent graduate from police school but has been caring for the region now for about a half-year. His real goal is to become a detective, he announces, but he has particularly volunteered for this region since it is known as a good place from which to move in the ranks.

    As they approach the station, the two boys observe a police car in front of the small store attached, our young policeman suddenly pausing, almost pulling back, as he quickly puts on the leather jacket he has carried with him, and finally, somewhat abashed at having to act out his obvious fear in front of the Dutch stranger, pulls off his hat and buries it upon his chest beneath the coat. 

    Under the glare of the two policemen, they enter the store, Lasse pulling a container of engine coolant from the shelf and walking up to the clerk (Boel Larsson) while the student pretends to be studying a shelf some ways off. The cashier speaks in Swedish, naming the price. Meanwhile, a young blond boy is growing impatient and one of the policemen from the outside has entered, forming a small line behind or obviously fraudulent friend, who also appears to be without sufficient funds. The Dutch student rushes up to the register, announcing that he intends to pay for the product, and the two leave without incident.

    The young would-be police-man puts back on his hat and marches quickly back to his vehicle, the student almost running to catch up with him. Once returned to the auto, the policeman unsuccessful attempts to reopen the engine, but cannot, realizing he needs to release the catch from within the driver’s seat. But even after pulling that lever, he cannot get the hood open, retreating the car in embarrassment, rolling up the window and refusing to speak to the student. When Kieran attempts to move to the other side to get it, our little policemen quickly locks the door, refusing him entry.

    Rather exasperated, Kieren, with coolant in hand, opens the hood and pours the liquid into the radiator.

    When he returns to the rider’s side of the car, Lasse finally opens it as Kieren gets in. The boy policeman thanks him, as they drive off, Lasse announcing that he cannot take him all the way to Göteborg, but soon after mentioning the fact that it is legal in Sweden to smoke weed.

     So ends this offbeat little comedy, described by all sources, as a gay story, although it is not at all clear that either of its characters are gay or that there is any sexual involvement between the two. What is apparent in this cultural mélange, is that both boys exist somehow outside the normative society in which they exist, Kieran as a Netherlands citizen in Sweden, perhaps gay, and our little fraudulent policeman living quite outside the law, probably having stolen the very vehicle and uniform which he proudly displays in his journey around the region.

     In some ways, both are “out” while still being forced when any authority appears to return to the metaphorical closet. And it is clear from the outset that Kieran and Lasse feel an immediate attraction to one another, primarily for their outsider situations ridiculous as they both are: a student trying to hitchhike back to an institution devoted to societal norms and the policeman pretending to protect them. Together they are a pair of deceivers, not only to others but to themselves.

     One can only hope that if they pause in their journey together, however brief, that the legal weed of which our young policemen speaks might loosen them both up enough that they might even enjoy, momentarily of course, the pleasures of the flesh. But that, obviously, is outside of the story this charming short film tells.

 

Los Angeles, September 23, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2025).