——UPGRADED——
Stig is 15 years old and lives in neutral Sweden while the rest of the world is swept up in World War II. Like many other boys in his school, he’s in love with biology teacher Viola, but, unlike other boys, he secretly starts seeing her. Viola confesses to Stig that he provides her with much-needed comfort since her marriage to Kjell, a drunk, is falling apart. Their relationship grows complicated when Kjell discovers their affair.
Jesus returns to Earth and though at first no one believes him eventually the Pope and his cardinals recognize him and seek to control him. This irreverent satire of Christianity is certain to offend most Christians.
A young teacher, Eva Nygaard, arrives in Greenland from Denmark to surprise her fiance, the Doctor Erik Halsøe, but is crushed to find he has not waited for her and he is about to be married to his assisting nurse. Eva travels to a small fishing village to await the next ship back to Denmark. There she enters into a tense and often confrontational relationship with Jens, a quiet moody Dane who manages a trading company outpost. Meanwhile, Jens is trying to persuade a Greenlander named Pavia to become a company fisherman, despite Pavia’s fear of alienating his fellow villagers and upsetting the spirit, Qivitoq.
This biopic centers on Knut Hamsun, a celebrated author in his native Norway. When fascism sweeps through Germany in the 1930s, the writer shocks his countrymen by allying himself with Hitler. Hamsun’s wife, Marie , also joins the Nazi cause, and goes so far as to tour in Germany, hosting public speaking engagements in the country. After the war ends, the author and his wife are further vilified in Norway, and ultimately sentenced for crimes against the state.
This biographical film, based on the life of French artist Paul Gauguin, follows the painter as he returns to Paris after a long stay in Tahiti and must confront his wife, his children, and his former lover.
Danish director Bodil Ipsen demonstrates her devotion to American “film noirs” in Red Meadows. Set during WWII, the film concerns the exploits of a group of Danish resistance fighters. Ipsen raised a few eyebrows back in 1950 for her comparatively sympathetic portrayal of a German occupation officer who befriends a member of the underground — though he was careful to show the bestiality of the Nazis during a grueling torture sequence. The story ends with a rousing gun battle and a desperate escape bid. Red Meadows is allegedly based on a true story.
The story opens just before Christmas, when solitary, apathetic bank clerk Flemming Borck uncovers a plot to rob his bank. (It’s a convoluted set-up, so we’ll just leave it at that.) After doing a little rookie recon, Borck identifies the would-be bank robber as a faux shopping-mall Santa Claus, and counter-plots to steal the money himself and let Santa take the blame. This works out about as badly as you might imagine, and our bumbling protagonist spirals further and further away from the carefree, laconic lifestyle he had hoped to ensure for himself.
Two common working-class people, Robert and Jenny, meet one day in a bar. After Robert defends Jenny against her date, a district attorney’s chauffeur, who is trying to get her drunk, they begin a relationship. She soon discovers that she will be tried in court for an abortion she needed a few years previously. Her parents disown her and she loses her job as a saleswoman. Robert stays with her, admitting his own responsibility for killing someone when he was 17 years old. Distraught at the thought of going to prison, Jenny convinces Robert to commit suicide with her. Just as she is planning the suicide, her lawyer comes and announces that the case has been dropped.
