Kongekabale
Denmark,
2004, 103 min
Shown in 2005
CREDITS
- dir
-
Nikolaj Arcel
- prod
-
Meta Louise Foldager
- scr
-
Nikolaj Arcel, Rasmus Heisterberg
- cam
-
Ramus Videbaek
- editor
-
Mikkel E.G. Nielson
- mus
-
Henrik Munk, Flemming Nordkrog
- cast
-
Anders W. Berthelsen, Søren Pilmark, Nastja Arcel, Nicolas Bro, Lars Mikkelsen
- source
-
Danish Film Institute, Gothersgade 55, DK-1123 Copenhagen K, Denmark. FAX: 45-3374-3445. EMAIL: charlottea@dfi.dk.
-
COMMENTS
Meta Louise Foldager in person.
OTHER
Director and cowriter Nicolaj Arcel’s debut feature is that rare commodity—a political thriller that’s thrilling, in which moment-by-moment tensions increase and threaten to spin out of control. The intrigue is centered on Ulrik Torp, a young, hungry reporter newly hired to cover the Danish political beat. When the prime minister is involved in a near-fatal car accident, political spinmasters sense an opportunity and leverage Torp’s enthusiastic desire to be the first to break the story. Torp writes a misinformed article that has dire personal and political consequences for those involved. As Torp realizes he’s been manipulated, he digs deeper, quickly finding himself immersed in the high-stakes and dangerous world of political sabotage. At each turn, Torp is confronted with disturbing information about dishonest media practices and political climbing. American audiences will marvel (or perhaps cringe) at the congruence between Danish political intrigue and our own. Arcel, who was also a cowriter of the Danish international hit Catch That Girl (2002), keeps the film focused on the consequences of Torp’s actions—on those he writes about, on his own family and on a media establishment that yearns for credibility. The result is well crafted, thought provoking and entertaining—a first feature heralding a promising new voice.
—Sean Uyehara
FACTOID #208
Before the showing of Robert Bresson’s Diary of a Country Priest at the 40th SFIFF, Bay Area editor Walter Murch (who selected the film to screen in the Indelible Images series), passed out fortune cookies to the crowd with Bresson’s musings on making films.
