Exactly 30 years ago, on September 24, 1994, militant vegans set fire to three trucks at Scan’s slaughterhouse in Umeå.
The attack was the beginning of several years of actions by militant vegans in Umeå. Many young people joined the straight edge movement, which said no to alcohol and drugs and yes to veganism and hardcore music.
The short film Attentat depicts 15-year-old Gustav, a vegan and straight edge follower in 90s Umeå, who becomes involved in a crime similar to the one that occurred 30 years ago.
Have interviewed the perpetrators
No one was convicted of the fires and few even knew who was behind them. But Johannes Persson has made contact with the people who were present at the crime and the script for the film “Assassin” has been inspired by their stories.
Johannes Persson has both directed and written the script for the film Attentat and he remembers well the time after the attack on Scan.
– I grew up in Röbäck, so my school bus drove past the slaughterhouse, so I saw the burnt-out trucks. Being a young and angry 14-year-old, I found it very exciting. But it was music that had the biggest impact on my life.
Symbiosis between the movement and the media
Johannes Persson believes that the great media interest made it a kind of symbiosis between the media and the vegan movement.
– The media interest created waves that got bigger and bigger, and then the movement got bigger. All the TV channels were here, even MTV. I myself was involved in production companies calling and basically ordering assassinations, and I would love it if someone did an academic work around it, says Johannes Persson.
Planning a feature film
There are also plans for a longer film about the dramatic years of the 90s.
– The ambition is to make a longer history that also covers other aspects of that time. For example, the polarization that arose in Umeå during the years when the vegan movement was most active, says Johannes Persson.
The 15-minute film Attentat will be shown at the Umeå Film Festival, which starts on November 26.