Swedish film director Josef Fares has done it again! HIFF 2002 successfully introduced Jalla Jalla to Hawaiian audiences, and this year HIFF introduces the second movie, Kops, made by the young director.

While Jalla Jalla told a funny story about complicated relationships between cultural differences in Swedish society, Kops tells a hilarious story about a small police station somewhere in rural Sweden. The four police officers working at the station have different characters; one is a lonely, single dad who is looking for a girl friend via personal ads, one is living in a fantasy world where he is a super cop starring in NYPD Blue, and finally, the last two are a quarreling couple.

These four cops’ daily routines include taking care of lost cows, patrolling the town in their cars, and stopping for numerous coffee breaks with waffle hot dogs and pastries. One day, an administrator from police head quarter steps into their station with the devastating message that the station is to be closed down.

Knowing that the major reason for closing the station is the “low statistics” for crime rates in the neighborhood, the four officers begin to set up “innocent” crime scenes to “help” the statistics and save their jobs. The “good” intention of setting up small crimes soon gets out of hand and leads to a disaster.

Fares has succeeded in reproducing the unique setting that anyone from a small town would recognize. The characters in the movie are well developed, and the story is realistic with tons of humor. The dialog is sharp and entertaining while the language includes plenty of typical Swedish jargon. Even though Fares makes fun of the Swedish police officers and the Swedish culture, the plot could easily be translated to any rural area in the world, and maybe it already has in the American movie Super Troopers.

Kops is a “must see” and is showing at Dole Cannery on Nov. 3 and 4.