Discoveries from Denmark World Cinema

A film centered on the production of landscape and concrete in the Arrábida Natural Park, Portugal. Covering a vast area of coast, caves, mountains and forest, the park is inhabited by a massive concrete factory that branches through the landscape. Documenting the various layers of the sourced material, the factory body and the constructed landscape, the film looks at how time is physically embedded in the matter and how the molecular particles act in a circular re-shaping of the whole. The film merges 16mm footage shot in the area of Arrábida with 3D animation of the topographic landscape as an equal analogue layer. Há só uma terra. There is only one earth.

Jytte Rex' sixth feature explores the here and now, the once and future beyond, Death and Eros, and proof of God's existence to be found in the Black Holes in a universe of nothingness. Tangible human individuals like Adam, an astronome, and two small children move through the surreal landscapes of Jytte Rex' cinematic poetry. If a door opens, it is only to lead you into Eternity's ultimate maze.

A 17 year old inmate raped and killed in one of Denmark 's prisons . For Katrine being the case a strong meeting with a past she 'd rather forget , and she goes to attack the system that made the attack possible . When another prisoner killed in the same way , it becomes clear that a serial killer is loose behind bars. The case attracted great attention in the press , and the police receive massive criticism that such a thing at all can happen in a Danish prison . Have criminals less entitled to protection than others? Katrine and Thomas are working under intense pressure to narrow down the culprits in an environment marked by hatred, violence and revenge. An environment that penetrates under the skin of them both, and provokes sides they would rather not acknowledge .

Dirch Passer does it again. In this incredibly funny Passer film, we meet Dirch as a member of the ground staff at SAS. Dirch has one small flaw: he is hopelessly in love with a stewardess and finds it very difficult not to dream about his crush while he is at work. Time and again, he dreams himself into various heroic roles in order to attract the attention of his beloved Agneta. We meet Dirch as a flight captain, archaeologist, gangster, sailor, prince, defense attorney, boxing champion, and soldier in the Wild West. These are all roles he immerses himself in through his daydreams. But when you dream, you usually wake up again, and so does Peter, and every time he finds himself in the most embarrassing situations. The question is whether Peter will ever succeed in getting his Agneta to see his side, and will she even notice that he dreams about her, and will he be able to keep his job at SAS?

Hans and Elinor are in love, but have to meet clandestinely to avoid the keen eyes of the headmistress at the home for girls where Elinor lives. When they are discovered, they seek refuge in a Chinese gazebo used by the vagabonds Pat and Patachon as a cheap summer residence. However, the two vagabonds quickly vacate the premises to let the young couple stay there. As a thank you, Hans, who is a sailor, enrols Long and Short as part of the crew on his rich uncle’s boat and invites the entire girls’ institute and its headmistress on a sailing trip. In disguise, Hans hopes to spend some time with Elinor, but once again they fail to deceive the headmistress. Long and Short now come upon the idea of hiring a brickworks, whose owner turns out to be Elinor’s uncle. But mysterious things happen at the factory, which does not make entirely ordinary bricks, and Long and Short find themselves caught up in yet another heady drama. (stumfilm.dk)

Architect William Sommer wants to organize his life in a practical and sensible way. Yet it is falling apart. His ex-wife will not settle for a check. His new, young girlfriend has a young man in tow. William feels sick to his stomach. He numbs the pain with alcohol. He feels like doing something violent. The nice man is about to explode...

Proprietor Madsen is trying to charm the kitchen maid, Stine, and gives her a lottery ticket for Christmas. If she is lucky, she will win the most beautiful farm in the country, so Madsen writes down the number of the lottery ticket and keeps a watchful eye on the lucky numbers. Draw by draw is made public, but the ticket does not win, and Stine grows impatient. So when the farmhand Klaus offers to buy the ticket, Stine sells. The next drawing brings Klaus the win and Stine now has a problem with Madsen, who had planned to get his hands on both her and the big prize. (Stumfilm.dk).

Unfold emerges from the collaborative surrealist method cadavre exquis (equisite corpse), known from the children’s game in which a blank sheet of paper is folded, and participants draw parts of a person. In this artistic game, three filmmakers create a continuous work based on a vision of artistic collaboration across genres and art forms. In Unfold, music is the canvas on which the filmmakers paint. They were each given a third of a piece composed for the project, and asked to cinematically interpret it to create one continuous film, having only seen the last ten seconds of the previous filmmaker’s work. The protagonist begins her journey in an abstract light-world, and moves to a dystopian realm filled with haunting images of outbreak and quarantine, before ending up in an emotional and intense one-take love story that takes a turn for the worse. Unfold challenges conventions and celebrates the transformative power of collaborative storytelling through music and film.

At the Copenhagen Conservatory of Music, Mogens Birk passes his organ exam with distinction. Together with his brother Steen Birk, he has supported himself during his studies by playing in the city's small taverns. Editor Jepsen from Bollerupager attends the exam, with a view to hiring a new organist for the city. At the parish council meeting, Consul Møller's daughter Kirsten, who was educated in Paris, is nominated, but Jepsen has Mogens as his candidate for the position, and he gets the job.

A motley crew must spend the night at a small, remote railway station. Strange occurrences and old stories about a ghost train that is supposed to pass through the station do not exactly contribute to a cozy atmosphere. However, the haunting turns out to be a ruse covering up smuggling activities, and one of the travelers turns out to be a detective on the trail of the smugglers. Based on the 1923 play The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley.

The fates of two people align as a beggar tries to steal money from a sleeping newspaper boy. Instead of reporting the crook to the police, the benevolent boy buys him a hearty meal, convinces him to give up drinking and helps him back onto the right path in life. Soon enough the beggar has a job, money and a roof over his head. The two friends face a bright future together. (stumfilm.dk)

Europe, 2028. A humanlike creature washes ashore, carrying with him a motionless body he calls his mother. He is on a mission of some kind, reporting on the dwindling human activity in an increasingly automated world.

A visual journey that challenges us to think about a universal belonging that doesn’t confine itself to a city, region or national boundary, in an age in which xenophobia, nationalism and intolerance are a daily occurrence.

Things have been slow for too long now. Really slow. We need some speed - and Denmark gets it in Jakob Thrane's new comedy show.

During a hectic taxi ride, a rich engineer loses his gold-plated lucky cane in the middle of Abel’s postal route. The taxi driver later looks for the cane and finds it in Abel’s hands. The two men enter into a shady agreement to split the finder’s fee. However, the prospect of great wealth proves too tempting for Abel... (Stumfilm.dk)

Else and her husband want a child but Else can't have one following an abortion performed before she got married. When Jytte, her friend, a salesgirl who is the mistress of a married man, tells her she is pregnant, Else thinks she has worked things out: along with her husband she will adopt the unwanted child. But things turn out differently since Jytte decides to keep the newborn the moment she sets eyes on it.

Alan is the British founding father of cryonics — freezing the dead with the hope of reviving them in the future. When his wife dies, he honours their promise by preserving her, dreaming of one day reuniting. Years later, he meets someone new— but when she rejects cryonics, Alan must confront what truly matters most.

Two sisters meet in connection with their mother's death in their childhood home in Kartoffelrækkerne, where the older sister lives. They are both marked by an unhappy childhood with their parents' drinking and quarrels. In their meeting, secrets come to the surface that put their sisterly love to the test...

Liv, who has OCD, is about to start high school. She falls in love with extrovert Anna, but how are you supposed to give in to your feelings, when you’re afraid of kissing and see germs, mold, and maggots everywhere?

Police constable Møller'og psychiatrist Dr. Mogensen will have something to watch as the Pusle to everyone's surprise finds out that she can do magic. On her birthday she gets sent an ancient, magical figure from her uncle in South America. On the same day Pusle's parents has to travel to London, and the large family is now left to strict aunt Alma.

Soufian is the former Thai boxing world champion and he still enjoys some respect on the street. But ever since his father died, he has been unable to motivate himself. Now he works at a welder’s workshop and makes sure his mom and little brother Elias are fed and clothed. Times are changing and there is new blood on the street. And Soufian can’t rest on past glories.

Nanna and Marta have been best friends since high school and for just as long, Nanna has been secretly in love with Marta. One night as they visit Marta’s childhood home, an opportunity arises as Marta comes on to Nanna and wants to be with her. But will Nanna dare to seize the chance and potentially put their friendship and her heart on the line?

Sally, an introverted 15 year old girl, lives and bears with her wolf-father in the city of New York where Wolf is slipping more and more into his world of wilderness. Sally still remembers the man he used to be; a brilliant and talented jazz trumpeter. Where did her father go? And can he still be found somewhere within the Wolf?

Istedgade is told in four stories that take place on the same day in or around Istedgade in Copenhagen and together form a lyrical portrait of the city and four women. We meet the flamboyant Emma, who wants so badly to please her boyfriend; the cautious Ida, who doesn't dare choose love; the hungry Nadia, who dreams of stardom; and the pregnant Sophie, who can't feel herself.

Sometime in the 1700s, Mikkel, a farmer from Jutland, wants to marry off his daughter Cecil to the wealthy Mads Egelund, but she is in love with the haberdasher Esben. Mads proposes, but does not receive a definitive answer. Shortly afterwards, Esben leaves for Holsten on business, and Cecil vows to wait for him. A couple of years pass. After an attempt to force Cecil to marry Mads, she is now in a state of insanity. Esben returns home happy and prosperous, but Cecil does not recognize him and, in a fit of madness, she cuts his throat during the night. Some time passes and Cecil regains her sanity. She does not know what she has done and is still waiting for Esben. Mads comes to visit, and after Cecil has rejected yet another marriage proposal, he reveals the truth to her, and with a wild scream she falls back into insanity.

In this exquisite black and white short, a young woman discovers an angel on her fire escape, and as any good samaritan would do, she decides to take loving care of it.

In one of Copenhagen's suburbs stands a large house, a villa-like property. The house is owned by the widow Elise Thomsen, who lives on the ground floor with her adult son, Eigil. Mrs. Thomsen rents out most of the villa. On the first floor lives the author Stefan Donner with his wife Lili and their 9-year-old son, Peter. Donner is talented but poor. The financial pressure on him and his family is getting on his nerves.

Dizzy Gillespie's brilliant trumpet is making up to nightly mysteries in the gleam of the half-moon where two courting flamingos are dancing while a grumpy parrot wants peace and quiet for his night's sleep. This is the fourth and last short film in the Birdland series by Danish animator Jannik Hastrup.

Bamse has dug up some of his all-time favorite moments from the archives. Over 5 hours of entertainment collected on 6 DVDs in Bamse's treasure chest. Some things never go out of style: good weather, delicious food, cute kids, and Bamse and Kylling... It was 1982 when Bamse first appeared on Danish TV. Bamse has many friends, but his two closest are Kylling and Ælling. The trio loves to go on new adventures, but Bamse prefers to decide how things should be done. These are the first six Bamse DVDs collected in the "treasure box." Five hours of wonderful and fun entertainment for the little ones. The treasure box contains the following episodes: - Dangerous Fly Agaric Mushrooms - Luna's Dream Journey - Sven Herlig and Dorthe-Elisabeth! - Troublesome Fog - Swimming Lessons - Laundry Day - Duckling Visits - Baby Chick - Strong Bamse - Askes' Working Drawing - Hungry Bamse - Baking Day

It's not just eels and rubber boots that Søren and Peter catch when they fish in waters teeming with smugglers... The parish council is against serving alcohol at the inn, but luckily for them, brothers Søren and Peter often catch both whisky and cigarettes when they go fishing. The naive brothers believe that their catch is lost property. The parish council chairman, on the other hand, is so tired of the two constantly knocking on doors that he asks them to give away their catch. And then things might start to happen. Not least at the nursing home. But one day, it all comes to an end. The police and customs authorities invade the idyllic Bomø, and all hell breaks loose for the two unfortunate fishermen...

Trapped in a world of eternal light, Dracula wanders aimlessly and passive. However, after meeting The Golden Woman bathed in sunlight, and The Black Crow, he regains his hunger for blood.

Ten-year-old Emil lives with his dad in an apartment in Taastrup. Following the death of Emil's mother, his father struggles with the role of single parent. In an effort to deal with this lack of fatherly attention and authority, Emil has come up with a set of strange rules and secret projects.

Using Goethe's Theory of Colors (Zur Farbenlehre) as point of departure, Light Darkness and Colors takes us on a fascinating journey through the universe of colors. In 1704, Sir Isaac Newton published Light and Refraction, his study of the interactions between sunlight and prisms. Newton was, as a good scientist, intent on achieving objectivity, which meant studying sunlight in isolation. He thought colors were contained solely in light, and found the spectrum he was looking for. When he reproduced this experiment, Goethe found another, hidden set of colors missed by Newton. Goethe found the hidden colors in the boundaries between light and darkness. He felt, as an artist, that one could not talk about light without including darkness. Calling it 'the light-darkness polarity', Goethe made this new scientific discovery using artistic methods in conjunction with science.

Consul Bergholtz is ill and will probably die soon. Family members gather at her bedside, each with the expectation of receiving a share of the impending inheritance. Among the heirs are her sons, the alcoholic editor Oscar and the homosexual lecturer Ejnar, as well as their pretty and recently divorced sister Esther. But when her grandson, the cunning and unscrupulous businessman Kurt, shows up, the intrigues are stoked. Kurt couldn't care less about good manners and cultural veneer; he simply takes what he wants.

Actors Lena and Axel are successful on stage, but have a difficult and loveless relationship behind the curtain. When Lena is tempted to leave Axel, the conflict escalates dramatically.

Peter arrives in Helsingør to marry Bitten. He is accompanied by Kanusti, who is to be his best man. However, upon arrival, his mother-in-law's dislike of Peter is immediately apparent. When Peter later finds out that Bitten wants them to live three houses away from her mother, Peter does not show up for the wedding. However, thanks to Kanusti's intervention, Bitten and Peter are reunited.

Three friends are hanging out at the marina with the adrenalin still rushing after they have stolen energy drinks from the supermarket. When they notice an autistic man, the “alpha girl” in the group, Agnes, starts to exploit the man’s good-natured way of being.

Jim, a robber, is in love with the chief’s bride Clara, who firmly rejects his many advances. In revenge, he snitches on the entire gang of robbers to the police, who immediately imprison the chief and his men. Clara kills the treacherous Jim and sets out to free her lover from prison. (Stumfilm.dk)

What might become the greatest challenge for the elderly Brasen couple having opened a summer guest house by the sea? Financial struggle or the sudden influx of demanding residents? Based on Herman Bang's short-story.

Erotic entanglements at a summer boarding house. Three young men are all infatuated with the girl Klara, but then another girl, Jenny, shows up.

The young mechanic Borge Rasmussen works in Salling Harbour and lives with the slightly older Marinus Frederiksen, who chairs the city's port workers. Marinus sees in Borge, who has lost his parents, his only friend and is easily influenced by his extremist views.

Joe, a circus clown, has a chance meeting with a famous French fashion designer, who – enthralled by Joe’s artistic talent – gets him a job in Paris. He quickly becomes the talk of the town, but as we know, wealth and happiness do not always go hand in hand, as opulent big-city living tragically seals the poor clown’s fate. (Stumfilm.dk)

Like the majority of modern-day farm men in the US, Kurt is out of work, unable to provide for his family. Smothered by a sense of void and hopelessness, he takes to the road, in a quest for his lost self-esteem. An existential journey of disenchantment that cuts right through the soul of the American inland, juxtaposing the shiny promises of the past with the harsh reality of a bleached-out Dream.

Two friends try to re-unite by going on a road-trip to the forests and mountains. Their attempt to reconcile does not go easy due to the secrets they hold, and a shocking revelation ends their journey.

A short documentary about the film Epidemic based on interviews with the cast, crew and a film historian.