Formed in 1981, Anti-Cimex were a gang of teenagers who inadvertently helped create and define the sound of Scandinavian hardcore punk. Releasing six EPs and two LPs before they broke up in 1993 they solidified their position as one of the architects of the d-beat and raw punk subgenres, forever to have their name displayed on patches, denim vests, and leather jackets worldwide.

This film tracks down the members of the band through all the lineups to discuss how they went from recording songs in a chicken coop to getting inducted to the Swedish Music Hall of Fame. Beyond just gathering amazing archival photographs and video footage, Jawbreaker takes an introspective, quiet, almost elegiac cinematic approach at Anti-Cimex giving us a balance with the unrelenting, brutal music they created.

Directors Tomas Haglund and Oskar Sjödin portray Anti Cimex with humour, tenderness and a dreamlike energy that reflects the band’s own unpredictability. The result is a film about a musical legacy as dirty as it is influential – and as alive today as when it started out in a chicken coop over forty years ago.