In A Better World

In A Better World, deals with two extremely different cultures and how they deal with major issues in everyday life – and it proves that as humans, we really all are the same. It’s no surprise it took out the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film…

My favourite film resource, IMDB, sums up Danish film, In A Better World (originally titled Civilization) with this blurb – the lives of two Danish families cross each other, and an extraordinary but risky friendship comes into bud. But loneliness, frailty and sorrow lie in wait.

I much prefer the original title as this film largely deals with two extremely different cultures and how they deal with major issues in everyday life – and it proves that as humans, we really all are the same.

The story begins with Swedish doctor Anton who works in an African refugee camp and is father to sensitive, outsider Elias and husband to estranged wife, Marianne. Anton spends half his life dealing with the brutality of everyday occurrences of mutilated women being brought into the camp and trying his hardest to keep his once close-knit family together back in Denmark.

In a parallel story, English boy Christian has just lost his mother to Cancer and has gone to live in Denmark with his father Claus and grandmother. Christian is an angry, emotionless boy, who in denial treats his father with painful distain. Director Susanne Bier manages to make you actually care about every major character, which is a skill indeed; every character shows extreme vulnerability (which is why I recommend taking tissues to this film!)

The story melds together when Christian witnesses Elias being bullied at school by Sofus. The two boys quickly bond when Christian defends and befriends Elias. Christian (played by William Johnk Neilsen) is a tough little bugger from London (who speaks Danish with a Cockney accent) and really is quite a brilliant little actor. Christian’s integrity for standing up for yourself is strong and he teaches Elias and Anton that this is an important aspect to being a ‘man’, but with a near-tragic outcome.

I won’t give too much away, but the justice that takes place in the refugee camp, the significance of the Silo, and Anton’s heart-breaking speech to Elias are turning points in this beautiful film. It’s no surprise it took out the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film this year.

Also worth a mention is Director of Photography, Morten Soborg’s stunning cinematography marking the stages of the day and emotions felt, by cutting in shots of the Danish and African landscapes, the moon, flocks of birds, dust clouds, spinning turbines and sparse trees.

By Christine Young, 5 February 2011