Søren Kragh-Jacobsen Movies
Danish filmmaker Soren Kragh-Jacobsen studied engineering, then went to the Prague film school FAMU and specialized in documentaries. Kragh-Jacobsen worked for Danish Radio in 1972, where he was the head of children's programs from 1973-74 and the commissioning editor of youth programs for Danish television from 1975-76. He directed television films and serials before directing his first film, Vil duse min Smukke Navle? (#Do you Wanna See My Beautiful Navel?) in 1977. The film, considered a modern classic, defined the concept of the "youth film" as "entertainment with content." Kragh-Jacobsen has been making feature films ever since, winning numerous awards at home and abroad, including several Danish Academy Awards for Best Film and international honors like the UNICEF prize for Best Children's Film at the 1982 Berlin Film Festival for Gummitarzan (#Rubber Tarzan). Along with two other Danish directors, Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, Soren Kragh-Jacobsen follows the rules of Dogma 95, commandments of filmmaking such as mandatory use of handheld cameras, a ban on artificial lighting and props, and insistence on a plot that takes place here and now without superficial action by way of guns or murders. Kragh-Jacobsen's Mifune was labeled "Dogma III" after The Idiots of Lars von Trier and The Celebration of Vinterberg, and it won the Jury Grand Prix, Silver Berlin Bear at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival in 1999. Kragh-Jacobsen is also a songwriter; his album Hinkeruder pa Mootorvejen (^Hopscotch on the Motorway) has achieved classic and cult status in Denmark. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide- 2009
A kid in need of a part time job lucks into one that send him back one thousand years in this action-adventure from Denmark. Fifteen-year-old Valdemar (Jonas Wandschneider) gets stuck staying at home and looking after his younger sister Sille (Clara Maria Bahamondes) while his folks go on a vacation. Eager to blow off some steam, Valdemar takes his father's new car out for a spin, only to end up in an accident that means an expensive repair job. Valdemar will do nearly anything to raise the cash to fix the car when he meets Benedict (Jakob Cedergren), a physicist looking for help with an experiment. Benedict has invented a time travel machine, and needs someone to take a test ride; Valdemar gives the machine a try and is sent back to the Tenth Century. As it happens, Benedict is actually Jotan, a fearsome warrior who was given the gift of immortality by his paramour, a powerful pagan witch (Stine Stengade), and Benedict want to go back in time to find a way to break the spell he now regards as a curse. While his first journey back in time is a success, Valdemar is not eager to make a return trip, no matter how much Benedict offers him, but Sille is willing to give it a chance and drags her brother along as they search for a cross that can cancel the spell. However, the witch gets wise to the antics of the time travelers, and sets out to foil their scheme. Volvens Forbandelse (aka Timetrip: The Curse of the Viking Witch) was the first feature film from director Mogens Hagedorn. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2008
The sins of a father are visited upon the son who has discovered his secrets in this political thriller from director Soren Kragh-Jacobsen. Thomas Deleuran (Anders W. Berthelsen) is a puppeteer who makes his living performing for children. Ironically, Thomas had an unhappy childhood and isn't faring much better either a father or a husband; his marriage is falling apart, and his relationship with his daughter is distant at best. One evening, Thomas gets a call from his sister Charlotte (Sonja Richter), who wants to meet with him, saying she's uncovered some interesting information about their father, who worked in Swedish intelligence. Thomas and Charlotte make plans to meet the following night, but when he arrives at her place, he's informed that his sister died in a drowning incident. Thomas later meets with Ursula (Maria Bonnevie), who was romantically involved with Charlotte and a party to her secrets; between talking to her and reading the notes his sister left behind, he discovers his father was part of a classified biological warfare program in the Eighties, and the knowledge makes him a target of agents who don't want these secrets brought to light. Det Som Ingen Ved (aka What No One Knows) was an official entry at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anders W. Berthelsen, Maria Bonnevie, (more)
- 2003
Two female drifters search for their next short-term jobs and for the reasons their lives have been filled with such wanderlust in Søren Kragh-Jacobsen's modern-day romantic fable Skagerrak. Best friends Marie (Iben Hjejle) and Sophie (Bronagh Gallagher) land on the Scottish mainland after a stint working on an oil rig, eager to move on to their next adventure. Just as Sophie decides to head to Glasgow to track down her mechanic boyfriend, the pair are set back after a one-night stand leaves Sophie severely beaten and robbed. While tending to Sophie at the hospital, Marie encounters a strange older man (James Cosmo) who later invites her to his estate while proclaiming to have an irresistible proposition for her. The old man, Sir Robert Lumley, offers to pay several thousands of pounds to Marie if she will agree to become a surrogate mother for his childless son and daughter-in-law. Initially disgusted, Marie reluctantly consents but struggles with the decision throughout her pregnancy. When a worse tragedy strikes the wanderers, Marie is forced to confront a number of issues in her life as she also finds both an unexpected love interest and an unexpected ally from the Scottish estate she has grown to hate. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bronagh Gallagher, Martin Henderson, (more)
- 2002
In 1995, speaking at a conference held to celebrate the 100th birthday of the cinema, Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier gave a speech in which he decried the increased technical sophistication of filmmaking, which he believed had come at the expense of the art of storytelling. Von Trier declared that the cinema needed to be "purified," and in collaboration with fellow directors Thomas Vinterberg, Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, and Kristian Levring, announced the birth of the Dogme 95 movement, a stylistic "vow of chastity" in which filmmakers would refrain from using sets, special effects, music that does not originate onscreen, and special lighting beyond what is normally available, and shoot all films with handheld cameras, using the original 1.33:1 Academy ratio. While the Dogme 95 filmmakers and their works gained international attention, they also found themselves struggling with the ascetic stylistic approach they had embraced, and some found themselves violating the rules they helped to create, while others wondered how their fellow filmmakers were to enforce their regulations. Jesper Jargil takes a witty look at the Dogme 95 filmmakers and their credo in The Purified, which examines the excesses which helped inspire the movement, how the Dogme theorists hoped to challenge them, and how the world reacted to them (and they to the world). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, (more)
Mifunes Sidste Sang is the third feature produced according to the Dogma 95 manifesto, ten strict rules drawn up by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. The title of the film refers to the late Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune, who played a bogus samurai of peasant origins in Akira Kurosawa's Shichinin no Samurai/ Seven Samurai. The protagonist, Kresten, comes from humble country origins but now lives in the yuppie circles of Copenhagen and has the prospects of a glittering career until a telephone call on his wedding night shatters his hopes of a better life. Kresten's father has just died; he has always told everyone he knows, including his wife Claire, that he has no living family, but now he has to explain he does have one after all. When he returns to his father's dilapidated farmhouse, he meets his elder brother Rud, who is mentally retarded. Kresten is embarrassed by the prospect of having his poverty-stricken past unveiled and keeps his wife away, telling one lie after another. While trying to settle things on the farm, he becomes attached to his brother and tries to find a housekeeper to help alleviate the horrible conditions he is living in, so Kresten can go back to his comfortable life without feelings of guilt. However, the housekeeper turns out to be a high-class hooker on the run, and Kresten is extremely attracted to her. Meanwhile his wife, who is beginning to get suspicious, is threatening to join him. The basic philosophy behind the film is you can't lie your way out of the past on the farm. Director Soren Kragh-Jacobsen followed the Dogma 95 rules closely in this film -- the music is recorded along with the images, the camera is hand-held, there is no artificial lighting, no props, the plot takes place here and now without superficial action, no guns or murders. But unlike Lars von Trier's Dogma film, The Idiots, it was not shot on video and the director admits to adding a shrub or two to the farm scenes. Mifunes Sidste Sang-Dogme 3 received the Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival in 1999, while actress Iben Hjejle got a Special Mention for her role as Liva, the prostitute. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anders W. Berthelsen, Iben Hjejle, (more)
A young boy learns a grownup's lesson in survival in this dramatic adventure. Alex (Jordan Kiziuk) is an 11-year-old boy who is living with his father Stefan (Patrick Bergin) and Uncle Boruch (Jack Warden) in a Jewish ghetto in Poland during WWII. While Alex has been able to hold onto some shards of his childhood innocence, he's all too aware of the dangers all around him, and his father has gone so far as to teach him how to use a gun for his own protection once the inevitable tragedy occurs. When Nazi troops begin clearing the Poles from the ghetto, Stefan tells his son to hide, and leaves him with the words, "No matter what happens, I will come back for you." Alex follows his fathers instruction to the letter; he makes a hiding place for himself in the loft of an old building, which he's able to furnish and can access with a rope ladder, while keeping a pet mouse who not only keeps him company but helps him find precious caches of food. With his favorite book, The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, as his guide, Alex tries to outrun and outmaneuver the Nazi soldiers as he patiently waits for his father to make good on his promise. The Island on Bird Street was a multiple award-winner in its screenings at the 1997 Berlin International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Bergin, Jordan Kiziuk, (more)
- 1991
In the true history this movie is based on, a group of Danish private-school boys got together during World War II and formed their own Resistance cell, which went under the name of "the Churchill Club." They operated in the provincial city of Aalborg and fought the German Nazis wherever and whenever they could, inspiring their elders to begin doing the same. In this movie, a group of privileged boys have gathered together to play pranks on the pompous occupiers, but they are soon joined by a more enterprising lower-class boy, who steals weapons from the Germans. At that point, the boys become more serious about their sabotaging activities. At the same time, they are just getting their feet wet romantically, and their curiosity about the world around them is very evident. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1990
In this animated feature, intended mostly for the pleasure of children, some characters are far more bohemian than is customary in better known American and Japanese productions, which may give the adults who are sometimes dragooned into watching these things some unexpected pleasure. In the story, an owl, a loving duo of adolescent sparrows, and some flight-loving mice join together to combat the threat to their lives presented by Fagin, a hawk-like predator who oppresses them. They construct various traps and surprises for the evil bird. When they are not doing that, they have some fun together. One highlight of the show is a seaside sequence in which a seagull entertainer leads a dance and gets everybody, including some cardplaying birds, a few drunk ones, and a flirtatious hen, to join in. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Kentner, Lisbeth Dahl, (more)
- 1988
Virtually unknown in English-speaking countries, Emma's Shadow was one of the most popular Danish films of the 1980s, and a winner of several awards in the bargain. Emma, an impulsive 11-year-old girl, is portrayed by Line Kruse. Tired of being neglected by her wealthy parents, Emma fakes her own kidnapping. She hides out with an impoverished Copenhagen sewer worker. Things take a serious turn halfway through, but a lighthearted "Pippi Longstocking" atmosphere pervades the picture throughout. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Line Kruse, Börje Ahlstedt, (more)
- 1988
If you think finding buried treasure in own your back yard is difficult, try looking in the rocky terrain of Denmark. That's just what the youthful protagonists of Guldregn attempt to do, effectively filling up 90 minutes' screen time in the process. Nothing comes easily, of course, and this treasure hunt is festooned with peril, not only from natural hazards but from intrusive adults. Nanna Boendegaard and Tania Frydenberg play the fortune-tracking youngsters. Curiously, Guldregn wasn't released to the rest of Scandanavia until 1994, five years after its completion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ricki Rasmussen, Ken Vedsegaard, (more)
- 1981
Based on a book by the popular children's author Ole Lund Kirkegaard, this is a whimsical tale of Ivan (Alex Svanbjerg), a little boy who fails at athletics and lags in his reading skills, occasioning jeers and abuse from his classmates -- they call him the "rubber Tarzan" when he cannot lift weights. (His father extols Tarzan to his young son as a symbol of manliness.) Ivan is alone until he makes friends with Ole (Otto Bandenburg), a kindly crane operator who understands Ivan's solitude and encourages him with the lesson that everyone has something at which they excel -- it is only a matter of discovering it. When that lesson starts sinking in, the change in Ivan may also mean a change in the way others look at him as well. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Schröder
- 1978
This is a typically laid-back Scandinavian coming-of-age film about a school trip to the Swedish wilderness. Vil Du Se Min Smukke Navle? (Do You Want to See My Beautiful Navel?) is pleasant and nothing to get too excited about. There is the usual experimentation with the opposite sex, a couple scenic views of Sweden, but nothing much happens. Happily, the dialogue is refreshingly free of clichés, and director Søren Kragh-Jacobsen -- little more than a teenager himself at the time -- gets fine performances from a mostly amateur cast. Birger Larsen, who made his screen debut here as one of the kids, would later direct the popular children's film Lad Isbjørnene Danse (1990). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
