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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1774 novel The Sorrows of Young Werther is reputed to have single-handedly instituted the Romantic movement which gave birth to so much music and literature in the nineteenth century. It is also reputed to have sparked an epidemic of suicides similar to the one depicted in the novel. It has been the subject of solemn commentaries since the day it was first published. This Swedish film spoofs both the original story, and the business of filmmaking. In the story, Max Karlsson (Tomas Norstrom) ,a sensitive young writer/director is filming the aforementioned novel, simultaneously suffering the non-stop harassment of his producer and the pangs of his own great tendency to powerful romantic attachments. The final result of his various tribulations is that the director decides to emulate the hero of the novel he has been filming.