Eugen Albrecht was abandoned by his parents in Gdansk 1939 when the Germans occupied Poland. Since he had no chance to escape, he lived with distant relatives in Poland during the whole World War II. He had to join the Hitler Jugend. In 1945 he traveled to Sweden where his family lived. Because of his German accent he had to fight everyday in the schoolyard. And at home was his tyrant father. Soon he got expelled. He went to a boarding school. He became a chemist. He got a pilot license. He worked as an actor. He worked as a flying chemist in the Middle East. He fought in a war. He started to produce amphetamine. He got sent to prison. And the story just goes on and on...
The Gentleman is Eugen Albrecht. I came to know him when I worked as cinematographer on the film "You the Living" by Roy Andersson. Eugen used to visit us in the studio every now and then and ask to borrow some money for a beer. He used to tell us the most incredible stories about his life. At first I thought that he made it up to impress us. But when I started to investigate, it turned out that most of the stories were true.