ces petits riens

To kill a child (Att döda ett barn) is the name of Stig Dagerman's supposedly most famous short story. It's a haunting and thought-provoking little piece of writing which stays in mind once having read it. It was adapted into short film a few years ago by the Skarsgård clan with the oldest son Alexander producing, Stellan narrating the story and starring the youngest of six children, Valter as the child who is killed. It's a pretty good effort and featured below the following excerpt of the ending is a link to the short film.

Because it's not true that time heals all wounds. Time does not heal the wounds of a killed child, and it heals very poorly the pain of a mother who forgot to buy sugar and who sent her child across the road to borrow some. And it heals just as poorly the anguish of a once-cheerful man who has killed a child.

Because the man who has killed a child does not go to the sea. The man who has killed a child drives home slowly, in silence. And beside him sits a mute woman with a bandaged hand. And as they drive back through the villages, they do not see even one friendly face-all shadows, everywhere, are very dark. And when they part, it is in the deepest silence. And the man who has killed a child knows that this silence is his enemy, and that he will need years of his life to conquer it by crying out that it wasn't his fault. But he also knows that this is a lie. And in the fitful dreams of his nights he will try instead to gain back just a single minute of his life, to somehow make that single minute different. But life is so merciless to the man who has killed a child that everything afterward is too late.

the short film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B75F1vo5864