The Best of Danish Cinema

Erik, a lecturer in architecture, inherits his father's large old house in Hellerup, north of Copenhagen. His wife Anna, a well-known television newscaster, suggests that they invite their friends to come and live with them. In this way she hopes to evade the boredom that has begun to seep into their marriage. Before long, a dozen women, men and children move into the country house, make collective decisions, engage in discussions and go swimming together in the nearby Øresund strait. They also rub each other up the wrong way on account of their smaller and larger idiosyncrasies. Their fragile equilibrium threatens to come undone when Erik falls in love with his student Emma and the young woman moves into the house. Fourteen-year-old Freja, daughter of Erik and Anna, aloofly observes these goings-on and seeks her own way.

Cecilie is devastated when her fiancé Joachim is seriously injured in a car accident and paralyzed from the neck down. Marie, the driver who caused the accident, asks her husband Niels, a doctor at the hospital where Joachim is being treated, to help out Cecilie. However, their relationship evolves into an affair which threatens Niels' family.

How far would decent human beings be willing to go, when tragedy blurs the line between just and unjust? With "A Second Chance", Susanne Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen have crafted another startling yet moving drama about how easily we lose our grasp on justice, when confronted with the unthinkable, and life as we know it is hanging by a thread.

Follows a precocious, eleven-year-old Allan, who tries desperately to keep his dysfunctional, rural family together during the social upheavals of the early seventies. Allan reveres his father, Henry, the local milkman, and can't understand why others don't feel the same way. His family life is so twisted he thinks it's perfectly normal to stay awake all night dealing with his father's hysterics and suicidal threats. Allan's older brother left town several years ago, and his mother gave up long before that, relying on sleeping pills to escape Henry's tantrums. Allan then becomes obsessed with a rival family, whom he considers foolish white trash until they start taking away Henry's customers. He is frustrated that his mother doesn't take his father's complaints seriously, and is perplexed by the increasingly rebellious and bizarre behavior of his sister, Sanne. Incapable of understanding what's going on and heavily influenced by his father, Allan commits appalling acts, unaware of their import.

When his wife dies, Lassefar (Max von Sydow) takes his 12-year-old son, Pelle (Pelle Hvenegaard), from their home in Sweden to Denmark in search of a better life. Signing on as laborers at a large farm, father and son undergo numerous trials, including prejudice against immigrants and run-ins with those more powerful than themselves in both the physical and the social sense. Over the course of a year, young Pelle learns what it takes to survive in a harsh and unforgiving world.

Anton is a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark, and his work at an African refugee camp. In these two very different worlds, he and his family are faced with conflicts that lead them to difficult choices between revenge and forgiveness. Anton and his wife Marianne, who have two young sons, are separated and struggling with the possibility of divorce. Their older, ten-year-old son Elias is being bullied at school, until he is defended by Christian, a new boy who has just moved from London with his father, Claus. Christian's mother recently lost her battle with cancer, and Christian is greatly troubled by her death. Elias and Christian quickly form a strong bond, but when Christian involves Elias in a dangerous act of revenge with potentially tragic consequences, their friendship is tested and lives are put in danger. Ultimately, it is their parents who are left to help them come to terms with the complexity of human emotions, pain and empathy.

There is a theory that man is born with half a per mille too little. That alcohol in the blood opens the mind to the outside world, problems seem smaller and creativity increases. We know it well; after the first glass of wine, the conversation lifts, the possibilities open up. Martin is a high school teacher. He feels old and tired. His students and their parents want him terminated to increase their average. Encouraged by the per mille theory, Martin and his three colleagues throw themselves into an experiment to maintain a constant alcohol impact in everyday life. If Churchill won World War II in a dense fog of spirits, what could the strong drops do for them and their students? The result is positive in the beginning. Martin's class is in a different way now, and the project is being promoted to a real academic study with the collection of results. Slowly, but surely, the alcohol makes the four friends and their surroundings loosen up. The results are rising, and they really begin to feel life. As the objects go inboard, the experiment progresses for some, and goes off track for others. It becomes clearer and clearer that alcohol can generate great results in world history, but that all daring can also have consequences. The film is described as a fun, touching and thought-provoking drama about friendship, freedom - and alcohol.

When critically-acclaimed, tough, aging actress Thea Barfoed ends her rehab, she confronts a hard choice. During her heavy-drinking period she got divorced and lost custody of her two sons. Now she wants them to be a part of her life again. Her ex-husband Christian is quickly softened by her tough, manipulative, charming figure and agrees. She must prove to him and to herself that she is worth the try, but the hard life on stage and the ghosts of the past come knocking, and she's forced to face her inner voices. She is bound to give in to her faith and make the choice.

A modern fable about an invisible man who gets the chance to become a real human being. He has to learn to be brave, honest and conscientious. 'P' is a fantasy figure, living behind the wallpaper in seven year-old Lisa's bedroom. Due to the destruction of the building in which Lisa lives, P leaves Lisa and her fantasy world. He ends up at a refugee center, where he learns Danish and becomes an integrated member of society. An apartment is assigned to P and he gets a job in a shoe store. P's naiveté and good will makes him an easy prey. Without being guilty, he becomes under suspicion of being a wanted child molester. This is the story of P's dramatic journey through the Fall of Man in an attempt to become a good citizen.

'Der kommer en dag' is a movie about an orphanage where violence and humiliations is a part of the everyday life. The history is based on real stories from a boy home called 'godhavn', where lots of boys were victims of violent and sexual abuse and medical experiments.

Romantic drama: the story of Christoffer and Maja's trip to the city of Prague - a beautiful, aging city, but also a city choked by a rigid and dated eastern-block mentality. PRAG is the story of a distant, ever-absent father who, even after passing away, traumatizes all who have known him. And PRAG is the story of a marriage on the verge of collapse, in which Christoffer wants one thing and Maja another. A story of an old love, constantly transformed; at once, rooted, fragile, vulnerable, forgotten and rediscovered. A marriage where secrets, one after the other, come bursting out of the closet.

A young Danish man, Christoffer, lives a life of joy and happiness with his wife Maria in Stockholm. When his father dies his mother insists that Christoffer take over management of the family industry which is in danger of bankruptcy. He is torn between his chosen life and his sense of duty to his family and its past. When he chooses to step in as manager his family life and self-respect languish.

Kira and Mads have been married for some years when she is put away for two years in a mental institution. The movie begins when she returns to her home, her husband and their two kids. However, she is not fully recovered and doesn't know how to behave in the outside world. She also suspects Mads of having an affair. She causes several scandals, before she gets one final chance to do something right. The question is if their love is strong enough to overcome all these troubles.

The R of the title stands for the young protagonist, Rune, fearlessly played by Pilou Asbæk. Imprisoned for violent assault, he's a cocky, good-looking young man placed in the hardcore ward, where his survival depends on quickly learning the prison's parallel world of rules, honor, and obligations. R also stands for Rachid, a young Muslim prisoner who becomes Rune's friend and accomplice, defying the rigid racial stratifications among the inmates.

Michael has everything under control: a successful military career, a beautiful wife and two daughters. His younger brother Jannik is a drifter, living on the edge of the law. When Michael is sent to Afghanistan on a UN mission the balance between the two brothers changes forever. Michael is missing in action - presumed dead - and Sarah is comforted by Jannik, who against all odds shows himself capable of taking responsibility for both himself and the family. It soon becomes clear that their feelings have developed beyond mutual sympathy. When Michael comes home, traumatized by being held prisoner in the mountains of Afghanistan, nothing is the same...

As children, Nick and his little brother take care of their baby brother while their mother drinks herself senseless. But the baby dies, and both brothers blame themselves. Many years later, Nick is out of prison after serving time for an assault. He drinks, lives in a shelter and tries to help an old friend. When their mother dies, Nick meets his brother at the funeral. The brother, who remains nameless, is a single father to a young boy, but also supports a drug habit that is spiraling out of control. When an opportunity presents itself, he becomes a drug dealer to secure his son's future. Eventually, the two brothers meet again.

Tony (Ulrich Thomsen) is angry and wants his money back after watching world-famous director, Claus Volter's (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) new film. Tony just got out of prison for violent behavior.

In a remote 19th-century Danish village, two sisters lead a rigid life centered around their father, the local minister, and their church. Both had opportunities to leave the village: one could have married a young army officer and the other, a French opera singer. Their father objected in each case, and they spent their lives caring for him. Many years later - their father is now deceased - they take in French refugee, Babette Hersant, who agrees to work as their servant. After winning the lottery, Babette wants to repay the sisters for their kindness and offers to cook a French meal for them and their friends on the 100th anniversary of their father's birth. It proves to be an eye-opening experience for everyone.