A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son's custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.
Thomas Vinterberg's masterpiece, for Zentropa. Danish.
This subject matter has certainly been covered before, or related matters, as in the pivotal 1961 film, The Children's Hour. However, in my opinion, this film hit the best pitch in emotion and the precision with which it deals with the delicate circumstances and devastations involved. I was spellbound by Mads Mikkelsen's performance. Just when I thought he would do something drastic or the film would lapse into melodrama, it all stayed the course. It is a film about forgiveness, all kinds of forgiveness, forgiveness for the self and for others. But lest we forget, and the film artfully doesn't let us, forgiveness doesn't always occur and is one of the hardest tasks we have in life, or that is what I took from it; others will take something else. I was very moved and held in deep emotional suspense by this film, which is what the best films do. Just brilliant, on all levels, by all involved. This film was nominated for or won almost 100 awards and I am glad it got the recognition it deserves, esp in light of the subject matter.