Walking along the road one day, out-of-work actress Anna throws herself off the bridge into the water below. As she rises to the surface, she imagines a cheering crowd of on-lookers will be there to greet her. In the event, no one pays the blindest bit of notice. To pay the bills, Anna reluctantly drags herself off to act in a TV commercial for Jorgen Poultry Farm. Soon after, Jorgen (of the poultry farm) offers her the job of looking after his father Walentin, an ageing widower who has withdrawn into a mute, vegetable-like existence since losing his wife. On the basis that she needs the money and somewhere to live, Anna grudgingly takes him up and starts work at Paradise Villa. As she struggles to deal with the cantankerous Walentin, she finds the old man is actually able to speak and walk. And this inspires her to look into the family’s history. Jorgen, a lonely bachelor who lives on the farm, is looking for a wife. To develop his hopeless social skills, he signs up for classes. The sessions, levelled at the reclusive Danish farming community, are essentially an exercise in communication. Jorgen learns to laugh, as well as how to treat women, and starts practising on the ladies around him. Despite Anna’s efforts, however, the bitterness between father and son remains. Meanwhile Anna has help in unravelling the old man’s past from Kenneth, an offender who is serving a public service sentence for violence. On the one hand, the film comments on the sense of isolation prevalent in Danish society. On the other, it explores how this is mirrored in the family, and in so doing reveals the paranoia of a community that has the outward appearance of being made in heaven. The heavyweight themes, however, are presented with irresistible humour, and Clausen manages to raise frequent laughs from the audience. His film gathers further appeal from touches such as Anna’s abiding failure to perform on stage and resort to role-play in real life; Jorgen’s attempts to charm women
Cast Erik Clausen Frits Helmuth Sidse Babett Knudsen Sonja Richter
Music Kim Hüttel
Awards Audience Award Critic’s Prize Palic FIPRESCI Prize Taormina Jury Grand Prize Maverick Spirit Award San Jose Cinequest Young Audience Award Mamers en Mars Young Audience Award Rouen
