ALFREDSON'S much-acclaimed directorial debut offers us a vibrant picture of contemporary Sweden in 5760 seconds. The film is composed of a number of seemingly separate stories about people at turning, or breaking points in their lives. Further down the road we realise that their fates are interweaved.

The story moves forward and backwards in time, continuously adding information and altering our preconceptions. While it employs Pulp-Fictionesque narrative techniques, it is essentially about ordinary lives and how they become distorted. Mick sets out to burn the school, but instead meets Jeanette and they go on to a journey of self-discovery and end up at the beginning of a special friendship. Kent and Ilva's dream to emigrate to Australia is shattered when Kent is robbed. Police officer Niklas adopts unorthodox means to move into a bigger flat with his pregnant girl-friend Francesca. Francesca's father, Giuseppe runs a neighbourhood bar together with his son Vinni. Skinheads Lasse and Jorma take a beer at Giuseppe's bar. Lasse reveals that he has fallen in love and wants to have his hair grown. Yet, in comes the immigrant Pedro who asks to be beaten up as a last resort to get attention from his lost love. Although Lasse is reluctant, he ends up crossing the line.

The beating-up scene is a splendid example of directorial skill: editing is minimal and it is left up to the viewer to take a moral stance. Not only are we confronted with too many points of view to make a moral judgement, but the film forces us to face our own prejudices and mind-set. The name "Tic Tac" reflects the importance of both time in the film and the ticking of a bomb, whose explosion we don't want to miss.