Søren Pilmark Movies

Adam's Apples screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen pens director Paprika Steen's darkly comic tale of an opera-obsessed cafeteria manager who works on a financially strapped ferry running between Copenhagen and Stockholm. Cafeteria manager Jan (Lars Brygmann) isn't the most likable of characters. Not only has his fixation on proper procedure isolated him from his co-workers, but even Jan's shrieking wife Anna (Sidse Babett Knudsen) can't find many redeeming qualities in her severely grating spouse. One night, after hiding out in the local opera house, Jan comes home to yet another battle with his embittered bride. The following day, Jan's life takes a wholly unexpected turn when the fed-up captain of the ferry grows tired of Jan's behavior and demands that the obnoxious employee seek professional help. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Left at a loss as to what measures must be taken in order to save their crumbling society, the Danish government enacts martial law and begins systematically executing tax evaders, welfare abusers, and various other inexpedient citizens in director Anders Ronnow Klarlund's blackly comic satire. The time is the not-too-distant future, and the "New Copenhagen Criteria" has finally been enacted. A government mandated system in which any citizen deemed a drain on the state is classified as expendable has found a large collection of potential deadbeats rounded up for questioning in a make-shift Guantanamo Bay-style prison camp constructed on the site of a commandeered elementary school. Their interrogator: Major Christian Andersson (Søren Pilmark), a ruthless judge, jury, and executioner whose activities are monitored by wishy-washy Parliament representative Folke (Soren Fauli). After forcing a false confession from artist-turned-bureaucrat (Tommy Kenter) and then putting a bullet in his head, Major Andersson finds his trigger-happy ways thwarted by the very woman who drafted the disastrous criteria. Though currently being detained in the schoolyard and awaiting judgment, suspected welfare abuser Belinda (Louise Mieritz) is actually former civil servant Sidse, the mastermind of the "New Copenhagen Criteria." Aghast at what has become of her well-intending plan, Sidse soon aligns herself with a fearless group of rebels while coaching her fellow detainees in implementing a legal loophole that may just help them escape execution. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A career criminal stumbles upon his big chance to get out of the business, though not everyone thinks it's such a good idea, in this witty thriller. Torkild (Soren Pilmark) is the leader of a band of small-time crooks; having just celebrated his 40th birthday (which coincided with his being dumped by his girlfriend), Torkild is looking to land a big score so he can get out of the business. While trying to map out a major heist, a guy known as the Man From Faro (Peter Anderson) approaches Torkild with a job -- he needs someone to steal a bag for him. Torkild and his cronies are up for the job, but they soon discover that a team of security guards is on hand to make sure the bag isn't stolen, and one of Torkild's friends is wounded in a shootout. After they've made their getaway, Torkild discovers why everyone was fighting over the bag -- it contains over four million kroner ($500,000 in American currency) -- and he and his partners decide they're not keen on turning it over to the Man From Faro. After their car breaks down, Torkild and company happen upon an old restaurant that's up for sale, and they decide to use their newfound wealth to buy it and go into business -- which would be complicated enough without the arrival of the Man From Faro, who wants to know what happened to the money he hired Torkild to steal. Blinkende Lygter also stars Iben Hjejle, who gained the attention of American audiences as John Cusack's love interest in the film High Fidelity. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Originally created for Danish television, Morten Arnfred and Lars von Trier's supernatural thriller The Kingdom chronicles the bizarre occurrences at the title hospital, the largest and most respected hospital in the country. While the series deals with such real-life complications as murder investigations and malpractice suits, a more villainous force may be unleashing itself upon the hospital staff. After a patient (Kirsten Rolffes) sees the ghost of a young girl, many of the staff members find themselves involved in frightening and bizarre situations like an ambulance that appears every evening but then instantly vanishes. Eventually, a female doctor (Birgitte Raaberg) becomes pregnant, but the accelerated development of her fetus could be a sign that the evil forces have found a way to enter more permanently into the world. This film consists of the first four episodes, or the entire first season, of the television series. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi