More than two years after it landed an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign-Language Film (losing out to "The Barbarian Invasions"), Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom's fierce and fervent adaptation of Jan Guillou's novel "Evil" is finally seeing the light of American projectors. While there can be no understating just how overdue an occasion this is, the fact that it took so long only to wind up in the hands of a minor distributor like Magnolia leaves little room for celebration.

As any serious movie fan knows, boarding schools rank second only to prisons as bastions of sadism, torture and humiliation. But for 16-year-old Erik Ponti (the stunningly magnetic Andreas Wilson), that's already an improvement over his hellacious home life where he is routinely debased and beaten by his cruel stepfather. Powerless to stop the abuse, and faced with an untenable situation after Erik is expelled from state school for fighting, Erik's mother hocks her heirlooms and sends the boy to what is supposed to be a respectable boarding school. But it's the inmates who run this asylum, upperclassmen carrying on the ritual abuse of their juniors all while instructors and administrators turn a blind eye. Erik, however, isn't willing to play their games, a breach of tradition and protocol that amounts to a declaration of war. Unfortunately for his nemeses... he can and will fight back.

As much as "Evil" may appear to emulate any number of similar-sounding films, its core message is unique, addressing a litany of complex issues relative to the individual, conformity and the extent to which a civil (or uncivil) society may or may not impinge on one's liberties. As the film begins, it's Erik who is meant to represent the title, a seemingly incorrigible hellion whom the audience is initially meant to root against. Only after his boarding school ordeal begins does one's empathy for Erik -- and for his antisocial inclinations -- shift the other way. The microcosm of the boarding school is a potent backdrop to be sure, but it is ultimately a metaphorical backdrop whose import reaches far beyond the story it tells.

Fifteen years ago, "Evil" would have been snatched up and aggressively marketed by the likes of Miramax, Sony Classics or Orion. Today, accolades notwithstanding, it finds itself left largely at the mercy of whatever word-of-mouth can still be had so long after the fact. That's not to diminish Magnolia's judgment in acquiring the picture -- indeed, without Magnolia one can only imagine "Evil" suffering the same fate as Sven Nykvist's similarly-nominated yet unreleased 1992 film "The Ox." But movies this good should never be left drifting in the wake of marketing ineptitude -- if an A-list distributor can't figure out how to sell a picture like "Evil" without an Academy Award in its pocket, then the people in charge should resign or be fired. The day that films like "Evil" begin slipping through the cracks is the beginning of the end for foreign films in the United States. Starring Andreas Wilson, Henrik Lundstrom, Gustaf Skarsgard, Linda Zilliacus, Jesper Salen, Filip Berg and Fredrik af Trampe. Directed by Mikael Hafstrom. Written by Mikael Hafstrom and Hans Lonnerheden. Produced by Hans Lonnerheden and Ingemar Leijonborg. A Magnolia release. Drama. Swedish-language; subtitled. Unrated. Running time: 113 min