Exclusively at the IFI
This year’s Oscar recipient for Best Foreign Language Film is a compelling drama from the Danish team who brought us Brothers, tracing an under-pressure doctor’s travails at home and in war-torn Africa to pose telling questions about violence and responsibility.
Anton (Mikael Persbrandt) is busy saving lives in a refugee camp, yet his efforts are stymied by the mindless brutality of a local warlord. Does he stand idly by? Back in Denmark, he’s turned the other cheek when faced by an aggressive local lout – thus failing to impress his son, who’s increasingly under the spell of a classmate adopting a seriously proactive approach to the bullying they’ve both experienced. It’s easy preaching non-violence, but does the point strike home when a good beating seems rather more effective?
No-nonsense storytelling from writer Anders Thomas Jensen and director Susanne Bier ensures we feel the moral dilemmas as keenly as the characters themselves as events reach boiling point in this deserving award winner.
Notes by Trevor Johnston.
