Hæven | Denmark/Sweden | 2010 | Directed by Suzanne Bier
Logline: The lives of two troubled families cross paths when the two respective sons are embroiled in bullying and revenge.
Winner of the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the 83rd Academy Awards In a Better World is a powerful and deeply affecting drama that toys with thriller stylistics, and burns with a poetic intensity. Its original Danish title translates as The Revenge, and it is a tale of human frailty, loneliness, courage, and acceptance that resonates long after the final image fades.
Anton (Mikael Persbrandt) is a surgeon who commutes from his idyllic town in Denmark to the terror-torn desert of an African refugee camp. His wife Marianne (Trine Dyrholm) is estranged, due to his own failings as a husband, while his ten-year-old son Elias (Markus Rygaard) is withdrawn, and is being bullied at school.
Claus (Ulrich Thomsen) has lost his wife to cancer and is bottling his sorrow, while his his son Christian (William Jonk Neilson) harbours deep resentment at his father for seemingly emotionally abandoning his mother at the end of her battle. Christian seeks empowerment through fighting Elias’s bully battle. Through Christian’s recklessness and Elias’s naiveté there will be tears before bedtime … and blood spilled.
Susanne Bier has directed a masterfully structured movie from an equally masterful screenplay by Anders Thomas Jensen, which weaves, slaps and caresses with strong strokes and surprising twists. Her mise-en-scene is immaculate, juxtaposing scenes of inner character turmoil and implicit violence with symbolic touches of tranquility; ducks across a dusky sky, windmills cleaving slowly, the branches dancing in the breeze.
While the cinematography and camera work shines, its Bier’s superlative casting and the magnificent performances of adults and children alike make this movie so triumphant despite the ugliness of some of its central themes, such as dishonesty, retribution, and betrayal. In fact, it is the limitations that present itself within the primal urge for equality, both right and wrong, that make In a Better World so intriguing. The characters are flawed, but very real. The ironic, bittersweet threads are so very important.
It is the parallels between the third world chaos and the civilized “advanced” cultures that presents audiences with such a rich tapestry of conflicting emotions, and the fragility of humanity. We strive, as intelligent adults, to be better than our enemies, our adversaries; the bullies and terrorists of the world, yet in times of extreme duress and intense emotional pressure we are prone to breaking under the strain and resorting to base, sometimes atrocious behaviour.
In a Better World is a brilliant movie of contrasting empathies: xenophobia and lawlessness vs. compassion and fraternity. Watch for the always-superb Kim Bodnia in a small but pivotal role as an adult bully.