Taking place on a small villa road: The two neighbors Gormsen and Sandelund have been at a dispute for years and this evolves into an all out war. Sandelund is a wholesale dealer in meet, a capitalist and has one of this modem houses with a flat roof. Gormsen is a dentist, and a communist, he has a new wife that are younger then his son, and lives in one of these old-fashioned half-timbered houses. A third factor is the merchant Krause. To begin with he is a small time grocer and progresses into the end, a big time businessman. He is a deeply religious man, a good Christian, and member of the parochial church council. There children, (teenagers) find their conflict silly and stupid.
Writing
Sharp political allegory disguised as slapstick escalation.
Acting
Rode and Price commit fully to increasingly ridiculous feuds.
Production
The dueling house designs are practically characters themselves.
Director
Bent Christensen
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during Denmark's 'red cabinet' era, the film satirizes Cold War anxieties through domestic absurdity—Soviet and American ideologies literally sharing a fence.
Director Bent Christensen originally wanted to demolish an actual house for the climax; producers said no, so he settled for increasingly unhinged practical effects.
DK
