One of the suburbs of the major town of Ystad is known as "pigsty" in Swedish vernacular. It is an area where socially disadvantaged immigrants were forced to live under particularly crowded conditions, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. 34-year old Lena also grew up there, but now lives in Stockholm with her husband and her children. One day she hears that her mother is dying, and Lena travels back to Ystad to see her mother one last time. The drive takes several hours and childhood memories come flooding back: her parents' initial hopes to gain ground in Sweden as immigrants from Finland, her father's alcoholism and her mother's depressions, the death of her little brother. Pernilla August's debut feature film features an excellent cast – headed by "Millenium" star Noomi Rapace – and is a moving, though never larmoyant drama about the powers of childhood traumata that affect lives into adulthood. At its premiere in Venice, "Beyond" was likened by international critics to the social dramas of Ken Loach or Mike Leigh.