Manslaughter (2005)

Recommended

Denmark/Norway

Feature Film

Original Title: Drabet

Director: Per Fly

Writers: Per Fly, Dorthe Warnø Høgh, Kim Leona, Mogens Rukov

Cinematographer: Harald Gunnar Paalgard

Composer: Halfdan E

Cast: Jesper Christensen, Beate Bille, Pernilla August, Charlotte Fich

When a piece of politically motivated vandalism ends tragically with the death of a policeman, a middle-aged teacher (the excellent as ever Christensen), who has been having an affair with one of those responsible (a former pupil of his), loses both his wife and job when he decides to support her, in Per Fly’s even-handed, painfully emotional trawl through the grey-tinged waters of guilt, ethics, and human relationships. Iain.Stott

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Dancer in the Dark (2000)

Recommended

Denmark/Finland/France/Germany/Iceland/Italy/The Netherlands/Norway/Sweden/UK/USA

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Lars von Trier

Cinematographer: Robby Müller

Composer: Björk

Cast: Björk, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare, Cara Seymour, Jean-Marc Barr, Siobhan Fallon

von Trier’s polarising, excellently acted provocation – a bleak tale of maternal martyrdom with brief, Björky musical interludes, in which the aforementioned mother, a Czech immigrant with rapidly deteriorating eyesight, struggles to cope in small town America, as she strives to save enough money for an operation for her precious son – is a powerful, often painful work, but a rewarding one none the less. Iain.Stott

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Edvard Munch (1974)

Essential Viewing

Norway/Sweden

Television Mini-Series

Writer/Director/Narrator: Peter Watkins

Cinematographer: Odd Geir Sæther

Cast: Geir Westby, Gro Fraas, Johan Halsborg, Ladislaw Reznicek, Alf Kare Strindberg

Watkins’s Norwegian mini-series – the British auteur’s magnum opus and, quite possibly, the small (or big, for that matter) screen’s greatest biopic – provides a sensual, beautiful, and extremely moving yet thoroughly informative examination of the early life of renowned expressionist painter Edvard Munch, utilising documentary techniques to introduce all of the key figures in his development as both an artist and as a man. Iain.Stott

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The Boss of It All (2006)

Recommended

Denmark/Iceland/Sweden/Norway/Finland/France/Germany/Italy
Feature Film
Original Title: Direktøren for det hele
Writer/Director: Lars von Trier
Cinematographer: Automavision
Cast: Jens Albinus, Peter Gantzler, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Benedikt Erlingsson, Iben Hjejle, Henrik Prip, Mia Lyhne, Casper Christensen, Louise Mieritz, Jean-Marc Barr, Sofie Gråbøl

von Trier’s frequently hilarious workplace comedy – employing the “innovative” Automavision process; a computer programme that randomly resets camera angles and sound levels (the small print in accompanying bumph would suggest that this is more of a publicity stunt than an exercise in capricious film-making) – is a cracking little allegorical farce, examining, amongst other things, the artistic process, office politics, emotional weakness, and the walls separating taste and theory from corporeality and validity. Iain.Stott

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Factotum (2005)

Recommended

Norway/USA/Sweden/France/Germany
Feature Film
Director: Bent Hamer
Writers: Bent Hamer, Jim Stark, Charles Bukowski
Cinematographer: John Christian Rosenlund
Composer: Kristin Asbjørnsen
Cast: Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor, Marisa Tomei

Hamer’s melancholically hilarious adaptation of Bukowski’s cult novel, a rambling, plotless, picaresque journey to nowhere in particular, in which Dillon’s aspiring writer drinks, loses several jobs, and drinks some more, is a (thankfully) unromantic depiction of a sozzledly different way of life. Iain.Stott

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Iran and the West (2009)

Recommended

UK/USA/France/Belgium/Japan/The Netherlands/Sweden/Norway/Canada/Australia/Finland/Poland/Iran
Television Documentary Mini-Series
Directors: Dai Richards, Delphine Jaudeau, Paul Mitchell
Cinematographers: Emyr Jenkins, Farzin Khosroshahi, David Niblock, Richard Numeroff, Sheila Smith, Vladamir Trivic
Composer: Samuel Sim
Narrator: Tony Gardner

A fascinating, even-handed look at the continuously tortuous relationship between Iran and the West since the Islamic revolution of 1979, boasting a fabulous array of interview subjects from both sides of the divide, including a number of former presidents. Iain.Stott

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Prostitution: Behind the Veil (2004)

Recommended

Sweden, Denmark, Norway, UK

Short Television Documentary
Original Title: Prostitution bakom slöjan
Director/Cinematographer/Narrator: Nahid Persson

An eye-opening look at the little seen world of Iranian prostitution and drug abuse, but one of questionable authenticity – everyone seems to be just a little too comfortable performing illegal acts in front of the camera – an affecting one none the less. Iain.Stott

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