Swedish cinema is not noted for its humour, its greatest exponent being Ingmar Bergman, who, for the uninitiated, is like Woody Allen without the jokes (or at least that's what Woody Allen would like to think). Which is a cliché of course, and one delightfully undermined by House of Angels.

The rural community forced to come to terms with strangers in its midst could be straight out of Bergman: all long faces and complex, unarticulated relationships but the heroine, Fanny, has mischievous wiles and a surfeit of sensuousness, while her Alexander turns out to be a gay biker called Zak with a taste for drag and his heavily made up eyes on a local farm boy.

Perhaps it took a foreigner to put a smile on the face of the Swedes. Colin Nutley has taken a rare career trajectory for a successful British director - while his contemporaries headed for the Hollywood hills he relocated to Stockholm. This is his third Swedish film from his own script, and he casts a warm but ironic eye over the ways of his land of exile. He invests a lot of time in his characters, each of whom ultimately defies expectations, and finds humour in their humanity and not at the expense of it.

Up-beat, and a long way off the beaten track, House Of Angels explores conflict and resolves it without despair or violence, and only a touch of angst. With its success both in Sweden and abroad it could ensure the Scandinavian image is bjorn again (bad joke) (perhaps it would be better if I said swede nothing at all).

RATING: * * * *