Denmark, 2021
Directed by Tea Lindeburg
With Flora Ofelia Hofmann Lindahl (Lisa), Ida Cæcilie Rasmussen (Anna), Thure Lindhardt (Anders), Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt (Jens Peter)
Bad dreams open the film, raising the stakes for a day that should be unlike many others in the sprawling, wealthy farming estate of the Broholm family: this is the last day the elder daughter of the parents, Lisa, is spending with her relatives, as she is supposed to leave the place next day to start studies in a big city while her mother Anna, who has imposed to all her relatives, including her conservative and callous husband Anders, the bold, unheard-of decision of giving a daughter a higher education, is set to deliver a new baby.
Lisa’s nightmare actually starts “Du som er i himlen – As in Heaven”, a dramatic and arty hallucination looking like the memory of a quiet summer day suddenly getting altered by the strange apparition of menacing red clouds shedding droplets of blood, technically and visually the very kind of pictures found in the many horror movies filling the silver screen in the 21st century. In a rather inept way, it does not spook Lisa enough to start her from her bed in the next sequence, she just wakes up slowly and happily. Still, the audience has been loudly warned.
Anna’s nightmare is never pictured, barely described actually, some key elements being dropped over time. It turns out to be the more foretelling and frightening and far-reaching. Anna had a vision about the coming delivery, and it was quite pessimistic, with the risk of losing her life clearly suggested. As her pains become more and more harrowing, as her yells more and more inhuman, as her body more and more bloodied, the premonition feels chillingly true and she should obviously get medical help. But in her vision, a visit by the doctor is associated with death: so he is never called, even if Anna’s health deteriorates quickly and horribly. After all, the dream could have been a message from God, and He is the only one who knows best – Anna knows it, and so do the many other women of the estate, which at time looks like a tiny, original matriarchy, which is still acquiescing to male power (nothing scares more than the presence of Anders).
And this points to the kind of community the film surveys: deeply God-fearing and Bible-soaked folks in the 19th century Danish countryside where faith, morality, and tradition must be meekly accepted – even Anna, modern and rebel enough to send her daughter in school, cannot but behave as her vision has suggested. And however outspoken and realistic her sister-in-law is, demanding the doctor comes and relatives stop handling nightmares as holy messages, she cannot change a thing and is just ignored by the older women.
As her mother’s death nears, the day cannot mean the same thing to Lisa as it did at dawn: carefree and playful behaviors become impossible, flirting with farmhand Jens Peter looks awkward, fearing for the future is unavoidable – with prayers the convenient, reliable tool to cope with the tragedy. It has begun as a day filled with possibilities and promises but becomes an excruciating wait the film wonderfully captures. When death does come, a stunning POV shot reveals how relatives now look intently at Lisa – a rare moment in the film when her bright young face is not in the frame, quite often at the center of the shot composition: now the camera conveys how her face is the focus of the others’ attention.
The reason is simple: Anna’s death changes everything and the consequences are treated in brief shots in the few minutes left in the running time. Lisa must not only give up adolescence’s free and easy ways, but also her plan to go to school, and any thought of a romance with Jens Peter – who is quick to leave the farm, now, as he tells her, that it is hers. Lisa is the heiress: if not propriety and duty, at least the need to keep the estate running and the familial traditions alive force her to stay, which is as effective a hurdle as faith. She just has to change her hairdo and takes the rake one of the oldies brings to her. Empowerment is still a barely thinkable concept and this is mainly what the film aimed to highlight, which it does with solid performances, fine dialogues, a lush cinematography (the walks in meadows and the many night scenes are superb), a compelling reconstruction of the 19th century Denmark, and a simple but topical narrative.