"Stockholm, the fifties. Though academically bright, violent pupil Erik Ponti (Andreas Wilson) is expelled from his state school with the headmaster's words "there's only one word for people like you - evil... what you need is a good thrashing, and more". In fact already Erik frequently receives a 'good' thrashing at the hands of his sadistic stepfather (Johan Rabaeus) - so he is packed off by his mother (Marie Richardson) to the traditionalist Stjärnsberg Boarding School, where discipline is left to the pupils themselves, who operate according to rigid hierarchies defined by age and family pedigree. Against the advice of his roommate and friend Pierre (Henrik Lundström), Erik publicly refuses to submit to the arbitrary punishments meted out by senior pupil Otto Silverhielm (Gustaf Skarsgård) and his fellow enforcers, and soon finds himself an unlikely champion of the tactics of civil disobedience against the school's institutionalised abuse."
Another good comment is on IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338309/