Pizza King

One could complain about the lack of pizza in this movie, or one could complain about how much like some other movie it is. If you want to see this movie and not make political statements about it, is not bad. It is basically a story about friendship and conflicts between different cultures. The story works fine and the acting is good, sometimes very good. There is not much pizza, but there is a lot of humor and drama.

The film takes place in Nørrebro, a infamous neighborhood in Copenhagen, where there are often problems with gangs, Hells Angels and other criminals. A lot of the citizens are unemployed, alcoholics, drug users or immigrants. The movie takes place in the nineties, but could just as well have taken place today. We meet four small-time criminal friends with very different dreams for the future. Zuzu want to be actor. Bobby want to be a real gangster. Junes want to start over as a legit, and Fauzi want to be a cop!

In a random burglary Bobby and Junes find a suitcase with 25 kg of hashish in it. It is worth a million Danish kroner (150,000$). Of course, they steal it, but they steal from the wrong men ...

I'm not a fan of Ole Christian Madsen, the man who totally destroyed Jakob Ejersbo's fantastic book Nordkraft. I think most of his movie sucks, but along with Janus Nabil Bakrawi he has written a good story and turned it into a good movie with a lot of talented actors. (I rated it 7). Janus Nabil Bakrawi, Ali Kazim and Farshad Kholghi had their breakthrough in this movie. They are all still actors, but today Kholghi is best known as a social commentator.

You know I have been in Denmark for nearly 5 years and I have never seen something like this before. The most Danish movies really sucks like "Olsen Banden" and those new movies are some crap too. For example "Sidste Time" has a good story but it ends so strange, also "Pusher" and "Nattevagten", all those have strange endings! But "Pizza King" has been a real success, the actors, the story, every thing in the movie is perfect! (THE MUSIC TOO) It really shows the life in Copenhagen and how the most Danish people trade the young immigrants and the truth always hurts!!

It would be untrue to call this film a masterpiece but never the less it is a film with a lot of qualities. A story about four friends with an Islamic background living in Copenhagen. We follow them through ups and downs, mostly downs, and get an insight into their enviroment. The main characters all act brilliantly but Janus Nabil Bakrawi and Ali Kazim stand out. I do have one small problem with the film. I think it is sad that we have to see so many stereotypes, both among the Islamic characters as well as the Caucasian. Still I think this film should be included as teaching material in the Danish school system. Especially with the rising racial tensions in our society.