Fuglene over sundet

String story from a period in world history we don't have to be proud of.

Powerful story, a bit low key but I think a refreshing change in look and approach to this material. I loved the sound track. Danes make nice fIlm and TV (Borgen for example) if you ask me. This was aspect was a new bit of history for me, I appreciated the telling of Danish Jews and their plight.

"Across the Waters" (2016 release from Denmark; 93 min.) brings the story of the Itkin family. As the movie opens with "Inspired by True Events", we are told it is "Autumn 1943" and we get to know Arne Itkin, a jazz player, and his wife Miriam and their 6 yr. old son Jacob. It is not long before the word comes that the Nazis are about to come around in Copenhagen to round out the Jews. A mad scramble ensue, and the Itkin family is desperately looking for a way to get to Sweden. At this point we are 10 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this movie is written and directed by Nicolo Donato, whose grandparents were among the Jews that escaped Denmark for Sweden. This movie, "inspired" by these events, by all means should be a riveting viewing experience, with such sting underlying material. Alas, it is not. The movie is torpedoed by a weak script and acting performances. The script is riddled by cliches left and right. The performers given wooden acting performances, and you can just feel the director screaming "and ... ACTION!" before we move on to a new scene. On top of all that, most of the movie is shot with hand-held cameras (and hence plenty of shaking footage), and with generous use of extreme close-ups, inducing me to have a headache by the end of the movie. It's a darn shame, to be honest. I would've loved to see a Steven Spielberg taking on this material...

I recently saw this at the 2018 Jewish & Israeli Film Festival here in Cincinnati. The Sunday matinee screening where I saw this at was absolutely packed to the rafters. "Across the Waters" brings an important chapter of Jewish life in Denmark during WWII, so it's with a heavy heart that I cannot give this a better rating...

First the good news, the roles are well cast and the acting is just right. The dialogue is realistic too. And the story is important. Now the bad news, this is a horribly directed and executed film. Horrible. Intentionally jittery camera work almost renders parts of the film unwatchable. The shaky camera is nauseating. And the shots? Too clever by a half. Full head scenes abound. Framing doesn't seem to be a familiar concept to the director. And the lighting? Way too dark. At times the screen looks black. I gave this movie a 5 and perhaps that's too high. But the acting is so good that I had to acknowledge what the cast overcame in this mess of film-school project.

Danica Curcic absolutely inhabits her role as Miriam, a determined and capable Jewish mother whose Copenhagen family is forced to flee the Nazi wave rolling through Denmark. Miriam and her jazz musician husband Arne (David Dencik) are given advanced warning (very slight) that the Germans have reneged on their promise of not interfering with Denmark's affairs, but she is dismissed Arne and his friends for worrying too much.

Arne, her husband, for much of the movie seems like a decent man if a little flaky. The type of artist or musician who in ordinary times ends up being behind on the bills or neglects the practical aspects of life. In this case, an expensive instrument well beyond their means nearly prove fatal to them all.

The "setup" is that they barely escape Copenhagen and make a desperate run for a small coastal fishing town, hoping to get across the water to Sweden. Not a lot different than the soldiers trying to get out of Dunkirk in certain respects, though these are just ordinary people.

In between they meet more kindness than not, though it only takes a little bit of evil and a little bit of cowardice to change everything. The other actors feel genuine and are well cast, and the locations and cinematography is equally up to the task.

Streaming Quality: This has nothing to do with the "movie" per se, but the streaming quality is unfortunately not great, with several scenes being very dark and blocky from poor compression. It'd be much better to see the movie on Blu-ray, but for now it seems unavailable.