I saw "Turn Right by the Yellow God" twice. Once as a sneak preview at the Copenhagen International Film Festival and last week in the movie theatre. I plainly love this film. The story is unique and original - and most of all free of the banalities that one might expect from a story about fathers and sons, estrangement and (misdirected)human pride.
Briefly, the story concerns Philip, a successful architect (Peter Gantzler, whom we fondly remember from "Italian for Beginners") who is estranged from his father with whom he had no communication with for 25 years. He is further estranged from his wife who is at an ashram in India and has a strained relationship with his 18 year old son, David. Upon learning of his father's death, Philip is overcome by strange compulsion to attend the funeral away from Copenhagen. During the funeral Philip runs into Karl (the magnificent Jesper Klein) who claims to have known Philip's father well. Realizing the futility of the long estrangement Philip, on a whim, invites Karl to come to Copenhagen and be his guest for some time, hoping that in the process he'd learn something about his father. From there the story takes many twists and turns as David returns to the house, one of Karl's old flames (Judy Gringer) arrives as well, and the household plunges into a veritable chaos.
`Turn Right by the Yellow Dog' is not free of faults. I did not particularly like the score, and Judy Gringer's role should have been expanded on. But despite the omission, `Yellow Dog' is one of those rare films that actually touches and comments very wisely on the family and human conditions without being trite. I was touched and moved, and can't wait to own the DVD when it is released.
