Your Image Consultants Share Their Movie Picks
As It Is in Heaven
We used to let subtitles stand in the way of watching foreign films but now that we have gotten over this we have found so many movie gems. Recently we saw a tremendous Academy Award nominated Swedish film called As It Is in Heaven directed by Kay Pollak. It stars Michael Nykvist (the journalist in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo films) in a riveting performance. You forget that you are watching a film because it feels like real life.
He plays a famous conductor, whose career is cut short due to poor health, who returns to his childhood village (the Swedish scenery reminds us of Canadian winter). We feel like flies on the wall as he confronts demons from his past, struggles with his lack of social skills and introversion and begins to slowly connect with people in the village.
An Emotional Journey
It is quite an emotional journey. Music and the church choir brings him and people of the community together. All the characters are real and struggling with their own hopes, dreams, relationships and lives. A heartfelt film full of darkness and light that ultimately leaves you feeling good about yourself and life. Four very enthusiastic thumbs up. (It didn’t get much cinematic release in Canada or America, but we discovered it on Netflix.)
At first I couldn’t place the main actor, Michael Nykvist, as the character he plays is so different from the journalist in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was only after I looked him up in Google than I also realized that he was in one of our previous favorite Swedish films, Mother of Mine that I mentioned a few years ago in our newsletter.
Mother of Mine
Mother of Mine – a moving and heart wrenching Swedish/Finnish film about a young boy who must come to terms with his mother sending him away from Finland during the war to live in safety with strangers in Sweden, directed by Klaus Haro. His new world is further complicated by the dynamics of the foster family who have previously lost their own child and are cautious about building a relationship with the lonely boy. The anguish of the mother, the feeling of abandonment of the young boy and the foster mother’s remoteness is beautifully portrayed.
We mentioned this film to a friend of ours in Fort St. John and she revealed that some of her family had been amongst the Finnish children that were sent away from their families during the war and what an impact this had on the parents and the children. This film captures this dilemma beautifully. A film you won’t soon forget. Four thumbs up.