This was the Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film in 2011. I can totally see why. This film kicked my ass.Christian (William Johnk Nielsen) and Elias (Markus Rygaard) become best friends because they are both slightly damaged. Christian's mother has just died from cancer and Elias is bullied at school. Neither boy feels that anyone understands their pain but Christian in particular is a seething ball of rage looking for an outlet. His father (Ulrich Thomsen) has no idea how to break through the kid's prickly shell. Elias's father (Mikael Persbrandt) spends most of his time working in refugee camps in Africa, patching up victims of a local warlord. He tries to impart the philosophy that violence doesn't make you powerful, but that is not a concept twelve-year-old boys are willing to accept.
This was an intensely powerful film, filled with real depth and emotion. Not the kind of emotion where you come away crying, but the kind where you're exhausted afterwards. Exhausted but cleansed. I was riveted the entire running time. Nielsen's performance especially was amazing. He seemed like the angriest kid on the planet. You could practically see his fuse getting shorter.
This is not a film I could ever watch again but it was excellent nonetheless.
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