Du er ikke alene

This is one of those films that would be impossible to make today and that also shows how different the northern European countries have been with their openness around young kids' sexuality. The film tells a beautiful story of first love between two boys in a boarding school with the actors being the right age for a change, and even when the subject is filmed with the most delicacy and naturalism, it's also not shy in showing full fontal nudity that screams 70s and would be impossible to show today. The film is a landmark in Danish cinema and touches on all kind of important teen and preteen subjects. The only real problem that I see with it is that the structure is very lose and sometimes the main story gets lost between the multiple secondary ones.

DU ER IKKE ALENE (You Are Not Alone) is a 1978 Danish landmark film written by Lasse Nielsen and Bent Petersen and directed by Nielsen and Ernst Johansen. When the period during which this film was made, a time when gay theme movies were all but verboten, this little film is a brave, delicate, tender, unpretentious tale of the bonding, both emotional and physical, that occurs between two young boys in a boarding school in Denmark. The story develops slowly and insidiously, a fact that makes some viewers find it boring or slow. But for this viewer the pacing of the story is intricately involved in this tale of the fragile first attractions that occur in young boys: everything is new, and nothing is rushed - it just happens and evolves.

Kim (Peter Bjerg) is a young prepuberal youth living with his parents: his father (Ove Sprogøe) is headmaster of a boys' school and his mother (Elin Reimer) is in line with the father's hard-line standards. Though not a student in the school, Kim does associate with the young high school age boys and finds one lad in particular, Bo (Anders Agensø), a role model who shows concern for Kim and with whom Kim bonds, emotionally and eventually physically. The manner in which this occurs is never acted out but merely suggested in the most discreet and beautiful way. But we watch as this bond develops more strongly, with each of the boys nascent to the situation in which they find themselves.

The classmates are a varied group - normal kids in a normal school situation - until one of the boys Ole (Ole Meyer), who is somewhat of a trouble-maker, posts magazine pictures of nude women in his dorm room. Reprimanded by the headmaster he is put on probation and when he ultimately posts the contraband pictures in the dorm restroom, he is threatened with expulsion. His classmates band together to protect him and Ole is maintained in the school.

Other sidebar stories that pepper the screen are swimming hole escapades where the injury of one of the boys calls forth the empathy of the entire class; there is a vignette where an older woman tries to teach one of the boys the beauties of physical love; there is a shower scene that finds Bo and Kim gently observing each other; and there is a class project for graduation that is supposed to be an enactment of the 10 Commandments, one episode of which is assigned to a student filmmaker.

It is this finished class project film, shown before the faculty and the parents, that is based on the commandment 'Love thy neighbor' and it is a beautifully wrought scene of Bo and Kim embracing and kissing in one of the more honest and sensitive moments on film. The 'non-story' film ends without an audience response: it simply fades away to a tune that speaks of 'You are not alone - there is someone like you ahead.' No, this is not a film about nudity or raw sex. Instead this film is a brave exploration of the normal period in growth when boys search for role models and find their first sensations of love emerging. It is delicate, beautifully filmed and acted, and is one of the early forays into same sex love that works on every level. Grady Harp

You are not alone is a movie about love. It is easy to watch and I can guarantee that if you have an open mind you will enjoy every minute of it. The action takes place at a Danish boarding school. That is the place where Kim (12 y.o) and Bo (15 y.o) meet for the first time.

I like the romantic which flows from the screen. The whole atmosphere of the movie is very relaxing and the music contributes to that. Some time ago I read that this movie became an icon for generations of young people growing up and after seeing it I can understand why.

You are not alone is sentimental movie which you will enjoy on some quiet night – it can make you a better person.

You Are Not Alone is an extraordinary film and one would not be surprised if it became a classic. The characters although not fully developed, much like the script, are nonetheless exceptional in that it sets the foundation for other similar works. Two young gay boys searching for understanding and acceptance, find love in a Danish private school. The film itself is sketchy with undeveloped nude scenes and hampered with an equally fragmented plot. Still rising above the script are the young actors Anders Agenso and Peter Bjerg who add a certain innocent vitality to an otherwise humdrum story. You'll enjoy the final sensual scene. It's the stuff dreams are made of. *****

Anyone who finds this film shocking, exploitive or revolting doesn't have a closed mind; they have a problem. This film is very reminiscent of a French film version of the novel Les amitiers particulaires shot in about 1958 I think. For anyone boy or girl who has had a crush on a member of their own gender, these films tell it all. The boys in You Are Not Alone were luckier than me:-) I was absolutely nuts about some of my friends at that age and extremely attracted to them physically. Unfortunately they weren't as smitten with me as I with them. A difficult time ensued for several years, confusion and hormones raged and reigned and certain scars remain. So, it's nice to see a film where boy meets boy, and boy gets boy. Maybe it would just be a passing thing. Who knows? I think sometimes that people who rail all wholier than thou against the type of relationships depicted in these films should be subjected to unjust accusations and then come up against a gang of gay bashers. Hopefully no harm but a lesson learned and eyes opened would come of it.

Hugh