The Brothers Lionheart (Swedish: Bröderna Lejonhjärta) is a Swedish fantasy film which was released to cinemas in Sweden on 23 September 1977, directed by Olle Hellbom and based on the book with the same name, written by Astrid Lindgren. It won Sweden's Guldbagge Award for Best Director in 1978.


Lars Söderdahl as Karl "Skorpan" Lion(-heart)
Staffan Götestam as Jonatan Lion(-heart)
Allan Edwall as Mattias
Gunn Wållgren as Sofia
Folke Hjort as Jossi
Per Oscarsson as Orvar
Tommy Johnson as Hubert
Jan Nygren as Veder, Tengil-soldier
Michael "Micha" Gabay as Kader, Tengil-soldier
Georg Årlin as Tengil
Bertil Norström as Pjuke, Tengil-soldier


The film was shot in Sweden, Denmark and Iceland. Filming locations included Stockholm for studio interiors and the openings sequence, while Skåne County in Sweden and Århus in Jutland represented Nagijala, while Þingvellir in Iceland represented the lands of Tengil.




In Sweden, the film grossed SEK 8,963,000 at the box office. Its screenings were attended by 553,000 people.


Although the film mostly stays true to the book some notable differences can be seen.

In the novel Hubert is described having long, curly red hair and a big, bristly beard, while actor Tommy Johnson had short, normal red hair and a moustache.
In the novel, Jonatan rescues one of Tengil's soldiers who is later killed in the battle. This soldier does not appear in the film.
In the book when Karl tries to find Jonatan one night, he stays in a cave where he suddenly gets surrounded by angry wolves but is quickly saved by Hubert. This is omitted in the film.
In the book Jossi tells Veder and Kader about Karl after getting the "Katla mark" on his chest. In the film when he arrives, he tells them before getting labeled with the mark.
In the novel the "Katla mark" is a dragonhead. It was a flame in the film.
Veder and Kader's fate is not shown. In the book they are killed by Orvar and Sofia.
In the book, Mattias dies at some point during the final battle against Tengil's forces. In the film, he is killed by a thrown spear before the battle starts after one of Tengil's men sees him release a white dove carrying a message to Orvar.
Karm, the lindworm is omitted completely. Karm is described in the novel as Katla's enemy and that he has been around since the dawn of time awaiting the moment he will get to kill Katla. As he is restricted to water and Katla to land, this has been impossible until Jonatan pushes a rock onto Katla, making her fall into the Karma Falls. In the film, Katla is simply knocked over a ledge by the rock dislodged by Jonatan and perishes in a pool of lava.
The ending is softened a bit and does not explicitly show the brothers committing suicide.


The film was well received by Swedish critics. Often interpreting the film in contemporary terms, they compared Staffan Götestam's portrayal of Jonatan to Che Guevara, and Georg Årlin's portrayal of Tengil to Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Augusto Pinochet, Richard Nixon and Saddam Hussein.


1978 Guldbagge Award for Best Direction (Olle Hellbom)
1978 Berlin International Film Festival, OCIC Award (Special Mention)Golden Bear nomination (Olle Hellbom)1982 Fantafestival, Best Direction (Olle Hellbom)