Submarino

I just had the honour to watch this Danish film at the Berlin Film Festival, and I have the feeling that this could be the winner. I don't want to give anything away, so I will be very general.

What we witness is the compelling story of two brothers divided by life, united by the same tragic event. Both adrift in their sorrow, they run down their self-destructive paths, with little to fight for.

It is no big drama, though. The narration is gentle and respectful, and leaves the audience in the position of not being able to judge the characters for their almost invariably wrong choices, but with a strong feeling of compassion for all of them.

The performances of the whole cast are extremely convincing (including the little boy playing Martin)and Vinterberg's direction - unlike his previous Dogma movies - is at the service of the disturbing realism of the story, working at the same time with a beautiful composition of the scenes (the cinematography, from the very first scenes, helps going straight to the soul). Chapeau.

A special praise has to go to the two actors playing the grown-up brothers. Jakob Cedergren (Nick) in particular makes us see the fragility of his character through his eyes, despite his apparent and imposing physical strength. But the whole cast is really credible all along, both with their physical appearance and their realistic acting.

This movie, with its realistic description of the consequences and the dynamics of substance addiction, destroyed families (what a critic to the Scandinavian society, where alcoholism is a devastating plague) should be screened in every high school.

And, let's say the truth: if you don't find yourself silently weeping in the last prison and church scenes, you most likely have no heart at all. I am fighting with my tears right now, just playing the movie in my mind again.

We see two separate but continuously interleaving stories of two brothers, each trying to cope with their daily lives, overall providing for a pessimistic view on their lives, riddled with drugs, violence, alcohol, bad housing circumstances, but at the same time trying to deal with their responsibilities like caring for a kid. The title of the film says it all: it stands for a method of torture, where someone is kept under water until he nearly drowns.

Though knowing no people living in similar depressing circumstances, casting and acting looked very convincing to me. Apart from that, we saw a sequence of events that kept us wondering what would happen next. All this resulted in a "page turner" experience, fundamental to a good movie.

Alternating between the stories of the two brothers was an extra bonus that made this film entertaining throughout. They each live their own separate lives, under circumstances that are very different but equally troublesome. Their respective paths cross each other in less than a handful of situations. Once you get a fix who the main characters are, this way of structuring two story lines works perfectly.

The film opens with a prologue, wherein two young boys imitate the baptism of a newly born child "just like they do in church". After that, the real story takes off, but I could not connect the dots at the point where the prologue moves on to the actual two story lines. Maybe I was not paying attention enough. I had to wait until the final scene before I understood. Regardless, it did not hinder my appreciation of the film as a whole.

Given all things happening you cannot expect everyone to live happily ever after. Nevertheless, the finale of the movie shows a moving scene under impressive musical tones, where even the toughest role players seem to show some tears. It may be intended by the film makers to leave us with an optimistic feeling after all, with some silver lining around the clouds.

This was a difficult hour and fifty minutes. All the lives shown were hopeless ones in varying situations of despair and desperation. Nick and his brother (who is never named) struggle with the guilt of the loss of their baby brother whom they looked after for their alcoholic mother. The guilt has twisted their lives and ruined them. Nick is violent and his brother a junkie.

The film shows the quotidian travails of these people matter of factly. It's not asking for sympathy or involvement - these are unpleasant people despite their dreadful pasts. Horrors happen but we are not horrified - the film manages to keep us at arm's length.

I was surprised to find myself weeping at the end. The actors, writer and director had done their jobs and touched me profoundly without my having known it.

I have just watched this film from SBS Australian network, I was glued to the screen and wanted to give my gratitude to the writer and producer, this to me was a film that is dateless as we see life that effects and infects from the time that we enter this world

It's a reflection of life itself as we start out so pure but within life somehow we are exposed to a potential stream of danger and propaganda

I grabbed my son and hugged him very tight as I will try to prevent him from such an experience

Well done Mr Thomas Vinterberg your film was incredible and powerful, yes it did leave me sad but sad in a good way

Very kind regards DGB

I don't get why they called this movie Submarino. I must have missed something or maybe I'm just too stupid to understand the pun. That said, it doesn't really matter as long as the movie is entertaining and that it was for sure. It's a Danish drama, about two brothers that grew up in a highly dysfunctional family, with an alcoholic mother that can only bothered by her next drink. The story is told in two parts, each part seen by the other brother. It isn't a happy movie, the desperation is overwhelming, but it's realistic, certainly for people living in big cities where these kind of things happen on a daily basis. I didn't know any of the actors but they all did a very good job playing their characters. Their acting made this movie worth watching.