A film by
JÖRN DONNER
based on the bestselling novel Manrape by Märta Tikkanen
Story:
A woman waits at a police station. She has come to report a crime. Here begins the story of Eva Randers, a divorced librarian with a teenage son on the eve of her fortieth birthday.
To celebrate her birthday, Eva invites a female colleague, Agneta, to have dinner at a restaurant. A man, Martin Wester, asks Eva to dance. He orders drinks for the women, but Agneta is not impressed. She leaves.
Vaguely stirred by the man, by the evening and by the fact that it is her birthday Eva follows the stranger to his apartment for a cup of coffee. He tries to seduce her. She tries to fight him off, running to the balcony. The man looses his temper and beats her almost unconscious. Then he rapes her on the living room sofa, leaving her lying there, and goes to bed.
Eva's first reaction to the rape is deep shock and humiliation. But gradually from her shock and shame, a decision is born. She begins a systematical search for the rapist, of whom she knows nothing, not even his name.
Eva follows Martin Wester wherever he goes. One evening she waits outside his apartment, disguised in a wig. Suddenly she decides to confront the situation. She removes the wig, rings at his door and when he answers, enters the apartment. She tells him who she is, why she has come, and while drawing a gun says: "I'm going to rape you Martin Wester".
At the police station a bored officer looks at her and comments : Men can't be raped.