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They Call Us Misfits

1968 Swedish film directed by Stefan Jarl

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ1758049 ↗
Source-derived summary

They Call Us Misfits (Swedish: Dom kallar oss mods) is a 1968 Swedish documentary film directed, produced and written by Stefan Jarl and Jan Lindqvist. The film is an uncompromising account of the life of two alienated teenagers, Kenneth "Kenta" Gustafsson (1948–2003) and Gustav "Stoffe" Svensson (1950–1978). The film, like its successor Ett anständigt liv (1979; A Respectable Life) takes a close but non-moralizing look at the joys and growing pains of mod and "junkie" street culture in Stockholm at the time.

Synopsis

The film begins with an interview with Tompa, a friend of Kenta and Stoffe. He tells how he grew up in orphanages and juvenile prisons. He says that freedom hardly exists for him, but one thing he is sure of is that the time he spent with Kenta and Stoffe and the other mods was the most enjoyable time of his life. The interview cuts to Kenta and Stoffe running through the streets of Stockholm filmed with a fisheye lens. Later, we see them walking around at the subway station T-Centralen in Stockholm. They meet friends and go around begging people for food, beer and cigarettes. The workers who are passing by are ridiculed by Kenta and Stoffe.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “They Call Us Misfits” as 1968 Swedish film directed by Stefan Jarl. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1968, 1948, 2003, 1950—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1968-03-25. The account is most persuasive where They, Call and Misfits can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1968 Swedish film directed by Stefan Jarl. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1758049. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1968, 1948, 2003 and 1950.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “They Call Us Misfits”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow They Call Us Misfits primary sources, They Call Us Misfits archive and They research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “They Call Us Misfits”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “They Call Us Misfits” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.