Danish Wave. 9th Danish Film Festival

Denmark is doing just fine, both in terms of its living standards and its cinema. Or so it would seem; a fairy-tale land, no less. And yet progressive filmmakers set out to look for Denmark’s dark sides and fearlessly go straight to the heart of that darkness. They cross borders and risk their lives shooting in real-life hotspots. They use the magic mirror of cinema to journey to various dark corners of Denmark’s past.

Every one of the 7 films of this year’s Danish Wave program cuts deep. Passionate retro of Der kommer en dag and chamber thriller of 3 Ting, World War II drama of Fugleve over sundet and unflinchingly modern documentary De sidste maend i Aleppo about the Syrian tragedy, brutal action of Underverden and twitchy psychological journey of Aminas breve. Even the ironic family story of Mesteren inevitably turns hot-blooded drama. These films clearly show that indifference would be the last thing anyone would ever suspect the Danish of. To remain indifferent to these stories is mission impossible.