A snapshot of the state of the Danish nation: in one of the stories, a woman enters a pole-sitting contest in a desperate bid to reinvent herself. Another is about Erik, whose wife has been lobbying a Better Homes and Gardens type magazine to do a spread on their perfect home. When the editors finally relent, she makes Erik sip his red wine in the laundry room lest he stain their cream-colored couches. Svend, the last remaining Marxist in Copenhagen, is the impassioned organizer of a political mass meeting where no one shows up. Finally, Jens, a pizza and porno connoisseur, connives his way to some booty by convincing Gry the model that he lives with his mentally challenged brother. Over the course of a week, their paths cross and nothing, and nobody, is ever quite the same again.
Acting
Helle Dolleris commits fully to pole-sitting as spiritual rebirth.
Writing
Whips between pathos and absurdity like a sadistic circus ringmaster.
Direction
Svendsen's Copenhagen feels like a city of closed doors and open wounds.
Director
Lotte Svendsen
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This film belongs to the 'Dogme 95 hangover' era—Danish cinema grappling with middle-class malaise after the movement's austerity ended. Svendsen's satire targets the very bourgeois comfort Dogme rejected.
Frank Hvam, who plays the competition leader, later became huge in Denmark with 'Klown'—making his small role here a fascinating glimpse of pre-fame desperation.
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