Drømmen
I attended the opening of the Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth tonight at the Vancity theatre, to see the Danish film Drømmen. Literally, the title seems to translate as ‘The Dream’ (referencing the famous speech of Martin Luther King Jr.) but the English title of the film is We Shall Overcome.
I liked the film quite a bit. What I had read about it online (for example the Variety review and IMDb User comments) suggested the film was rather formulaic, and it does share some elements with Dead Poets Society, but other aspects of the plot are original. All in all, the film is very moving, with excellent performances in all roles. The film takes place in 1969, shortly after a decree abolishing corporal punishment in schools. Thirteen-year-old Frits, however, finds that the headmaster at his new school still relies on beatings to keep order. The performance by Bent Mejding as the headmaster is subtle enough that it is open to interpretation whether he is simply a bully or someone who likes children and honestly believes that physical discipline when warranted is in their best interest. Either way, however, he clearly has an anger-management problem and inflicts a serious injury on Frits. His father wants to pursue a formal complaint, but the headmaster has the support of the school board chair, so the complaint seems bound to fail and in fact just invites further reprisals.
The theme of the film is thus the tension between idealism and pragmatism. Although somewhat long, the drama is rivetting. The audience at the Vancity theatre was full of children, but at the key moment during the adjudication of the complaint it was entirely silent: everyone must have been holding their breath.
Unfortunately the film was projected from some kind of video system and the colours were off: the reds and oranges were far too pronounced. Despite this the film was highly watchable and I recommend it. The two remaining screenings are Saturday afternoon (February 24) and Tuesday morning (February 27).
I liked the film quite a bit. What I had read about it online (for example the Variety review and IMDb User comments) suggested the film was rather formulaic, and it does share some elements with Dead Poets Society, but other aspects of the plot are original. All in all, the film is very moving, with excellent performances in all roles. The film takes place in 1969, shortly after a decree abolishing corporal punishment in schools. Thirteen-year-old Frits, however, finds that the headmaster at his new school still relies on beatings to keep order. The performance by Bent Mejding as the headmaster is subtle enough that it is open to interpretation whether he is simply a bully or someone who likes children and honestly believes that physical discipline when warranted is in their best interest. Either way, however, he clearly has an anger-management problem and inflicts a serious injury on Frits. His father wants to pursue a formal complaint, but the headmaster has the support of the school board chair, so the complaint seems bound to fail and in fact just invites further reprisals.
The theme of the film is thus the tension between idealism and pragmatism. Although somewhat long, the drama is rivetting. The audience at the Vancity theatre was full of children, but at the key moment during the adjudication of the complaint it was entirely silent: everyone must have been holding their breath.
Unfortunately the film was projected from some kind of video system and the colours were off: the reds and oranges were far too pronounced. Despite this the film was highly watchable and I recommend it. The two remaining screenings are Saturday afternoon (February 24) and Tuesday morning (February 27).