Armand

No, I'm not stressed.

I had to run. I'm going to...

Are you okay? I want you to be okay.

Hello? Armand?

There you are.

I love you.

Do you love me?

Armand?

-Hi. -Hi.

-Shall we start? -Now?

-I can't stand the noise here. -Okay, I'll just...

A primary school with a broken fire alarm.

-I should send everyone home. -It's not good.

Well, it's Armand again.

-Have you called Elisabeth? -She didn't have time to talk.

I didn't want to tell her via text. But I confirmed the time with a smiley.

-A smiley? -Yes.

I didn't want her to worry. She just answered "okay".

-Was that...? -And Sarah and Anders?

I spoke to them yesterday. But I think it's hard to verify what they told us.

The boys, they didn't really say that much.

Well, I think we should just see how it develops.

-Okay? -If necessary, we'll step in and help you.

-I see. So I'll handle it on my own? -There's no reason to inflate it.

Elisabeth is a public figure. She's been through a lot.

-So I think we should tread carefully. -For the boys' sake too.

Yes, of course.

-I'll try to stay sober and factual. -Sober is good.

I think I've got it.

I just have one more question. What's the procedure in these circumstances?

If it has happened.

Well, to put it this way, there's...

I mean, we do have procedures. Right, Ajsa?

We have to agree on what has happened. That's the first step.

It might be... It might be serious, but it might also be completely innocent.

But... Oh dear. Dammit.

In general...

In general it's important to show understanding for both parties.

Yes, I understand. But isn't there a procedure?

Yes. Oh dear. Dripping everywhere.

-Maybe you should go and wipe it off? -I think I have to. Excuse me.

Right, she...

-She's been bleeding a lot lately. -Yeah.

Guess I'll have to make my own procedure.

Yeah.

And Sunna?

Be careful about the words you choose.

-Be diplomatic. Sober, like you said. -Sure.

And Sunna...

You represent the school. Keep your opinions to yourself.

-Yes, of course. -One more thing.

-This is between us and those concerned. -Of course.

And one more thing.

If this blows over, it blows over.

Yes.

This will work out just fine.

You've got a great presence.

Thank you.

Right, let's get out of this hothouse.

Hi.

Hi. Thank you for coming at such short notice.

-What's happened? -I'll tell you.

But let's wait for Jon's parents to get here.

-Jon's parents? Why? -Like I said on the phone...

You said nothing on the phone. Is it so serious that Sarah and Anders...

I understand, but we must wait for them. Have a seat in the meantime.

Take off your coat.

Sunna, you call a meeting. Won't say what it's about.

I'll tell you everything soon, but now we have to wait for Jon's parents.

I'm sorry, I realise you must have many questions.

Please sit down in the meantime. Take off your coat.

It's nothing serious.

Okay.

-Nothing serious? -No.

No.

Very well.

-Would you like to take off your coat? -Yeah.

Some weather today.

Hm? Yeah.

Right, that's probably them.

Are you the only one here?

Yes, we thought it would be best initially.

Okay.

Hi. I'm sure it'll be okay, Sarah.

-Sorry. Hi, Elisabeth. -Hi, Sarah.

-What's going on? -Oops. Excuse me.

Sarah?

Let's just hear what Sunna has to say.

Right. First I'd like to thank you for coming

at such short notice.

This was the only day available, with summer vacation coming up.

I think we should start by defining what our goal is.

Right.

I should probably mention that we've had problems with our fire alarm lately.

It suddenly goes off in some rooms.

But they'll fix it as soon as possible.

-Shouldn't we go outside? -No, it's just a glitch.

It'll be fixed by tomorrow.

Right, okay.

I hope that we in any case may reach some sort of...

Agreement on the way forward, and leave this room

with an open mind.

So... It started when our cleaner found Jon

crying in the boys' room. He was crying,

and had a small scratch on his face.

At first he didn't want to say what had happened, except that

it was Armand who'd done it.

Jon has spoken to you two, Sarah and Anders.

They came to us, and asked us to treat this as a serious...

A deviation, a possible deviation. I mean...

In their opinion, and of course we take this seriously, a case

of sexual deviation.

It's known to happen among children.

But we think it's a good idea that we meet and discuss this together.

I understand this may sound brutal, and we should be careful about categorising it.

But the school views this as disturbing behaviour.

This is why we have gathered to talk about it.

Without going into detail...

What's actually happened?

Tell her.

Right.

"Armand and Jon were playing in the school yard.”

"Jon wanted to play with Petter. This made Armand upset."

"He said he had something to show Jon in the boys' room, but there"

"Armand didn't have anything to show Jon."

"Jon said he'd rather play with Petter. They'd agreed to play together.”

"Jon tried to leave, but Armand, who's stronger, wouldn't let him go."

"Jon cried for help. Armand pinned him down, groped and hit him."

"He said that if Jon didn't keep quiet, he'd take him"

"anally."

"Armand allegedly made Jon look into his bodily openings."

"Then Armand left. An employee found Jon crying in the boys' room"

"with a scratch in his face and his pants off."

"This is how we became aware of"

"this incident."

Let me first say that this is not easy to hear about.

And obviously I understand that this can't have been

easy to hear from Jon.

But, and I have to say this,

I think the school should have informed me before we met.

Then I could have had a proper talk with Armand

and heard his side of the story,

so we could have had all the facts clearly before us.

I cannot, in my wildest imagination, understand

that he could have done anything like this.

I mean, where could he even get the idea?

Well, I hear what you're saying,

and in my defence, or rather on behalf of the school,

we thought it would be best to present this face to face

with all involved because it's such a serious,

or rather that... It's an incident, a troubling incident.

I would say that it's quite serious.

Yes, but...

It's been difficult to verify.

So it's our wish to engage in dialogue rather than accuse anyone of anything.

It was our suggestion that we could meet and talk about it together.

-We thought it would be only fair. -Right.

But...

I mean, is there nothing about this

that sounds a little strange to you?

Do we simply accept this as a fact, that a six-year-old has assaulted a classmate?

Like, how did...

How did Jon tell you about this?

Which words did he use? The way you tell it,

a six-year-old doesn't have that vocabulary; "anal", "oral", "fuck"?

He barely knows the difference between boys and girls.

"Fuck" is a word many six-year-olds know.

Listen, Jon came home.

He was afraid. He was nauseous.

-He had bruises all over his body... -Bruises too?

That's new to me.

-Didn't you see them too, Anders? -Yes.

I suppose there were, yes.

Right, I'm calling Armand.

Well, I think we have to give her a moment.

There.

It wasn't Armand.

-Are you kidding? -No.

Armand said he didn't do it. Jon's lying.

I don't think we should accuse Jon of lying.

Why? Armand says Jon's lying. You haven't talked to Armand.

They have, Elisabeth.

Listen, I'm very fond of Jon.

And he's a very kind,

curious

and inventive boy.

And yes...

Maybe he's a bit confused.

And you're absolutely certain that it was Armand?

Yes. Honestly, Sunna.

Yes, we're certain. 100 % certain.

You know why? Because Jon's told us, you and your colleague.

-And because you believe him. -He'd never lie about this.

I think it's a disgrace that the school doesn't take it seriously.

Armand isn't an easy child.

One more thing: Jon says that when he visits you,

you walk about naked and hug him all the time.

-What? Where did that come from? -Let's try to stick to the facts here.

Our son has potentially been exposed to trauma and injury...

But we don't know anything. You're using a child's statements