Nordkraft

For some reason I felt draw to this movie from the first time I saw the trailer, so of course I had to see it during it's opening weekend and I can say without a doubt this is the best movie this year so far. It's a disturbing look inside the under(drug)world of the 5th largest city in Denmark. Set in the mid 90's the movie follows 3 persons,

Maria (a runaway from home girl). Allan (a guy who left it all when his best friend got jailed, but returns after an accident) Thomas aka. Steso (a very bright and intelligent guy, who does the drug because he likes the mental freedom it provides and acknowledges that he's addicted, but still loves it)

The movie follows the 3 main characters as they struggle with their lives, Allan with trying to get out, Steso with getting more into it and Maria just being where she can't really control her life.

The movie uses no known actors (except for Kirsten Nordholt as Allan's mom and Lars Mikkelsen as Steso's dad), maybe this is a deliberate decision so that the actors and therefore characters doesn't out do each other. And yet the movie is played with a top class performances, by ALL actors (not like Pusher 2 which, except for Mads Mikkelsen, is played so poorly that one has a hard time feeling for the characters). The 3 main characters does a very breathtaking performance, but everyone else does also great job, all the way from Pernille Vallentin Brandt as Tilde to Rudi Köhnke (who by the way looks a lot like Joaquin Phoenix) as Frank. Everybody delivers an absolutely outstanding performance.

This movie is based on a book by the same name, I haven't read the book so I cannot comment on the level of integrity toward the book. But I can say that I love this movie.

It's a 9/10, if you liked Christiane F. or Pusher, then you'll love this one. It's a Hard, ugly and disturbing look into the underworld.

I'll preface this by saying that I only watched this movie to see the very brief performance of one of the cast.

Having never seen a Danish film and knowing nothing about this film going in, I couldn't help but feel like I was watching a mishmash of Requiem for a Dream (2000) and Trainspotting (1996) in a more traditional European type movie structure.

While US/UK movies usually follow the same structure (Sizzling start. Backfill, pebble, rock, boulder, conclusion) that starts with a bang before slowly building the drama/action/tension as the movie goes on, this movie took a more nuanced, straight-line structure with an intricate move from one storyline to the next that can keep the watcher engaged despite their being minimal action or drama. I didn't mind this structure albeit being one I'm not used to. It gave the feel of the movie a more realistic touch.

However, there were far too many similarities between this movie and the 2 mentioned above, as has been mentioned by other reviewers. Since those movies came out 5 and 9 years prior to this one, you cannot say the similarities were accidental. Especially when the main music composition was almost a plagiarised version of 'Lux Aeterna', the theme from Requiem for a Dream.

There were 2 standout performances in this.

Lars Mikkelsen - His performance, although minimal, was world class at the very end of the movie. Felt so genuine like it was happening for real. Gave me goosebumps. Magnificent.

Allen's niece - They went uncredited in this performance so I won't name them. The effectiveness of their performance is so understated. Their soft baby sounds was angelic in their sounds. Almost as if it was foretold that they'd be singing some of the most beautiful music in the world. I may be a little bias in my assessment, though.

Overall a decent movie. Had I not had seen RfaD and Trainspotting many years before seeing this, I may've rated this higher.

Nordkraft is new in it's genre in Denmark. A story of people with a serious drug abuse problem and how they fight for their love. But it's not new it is genre for the rest of the world. Obvious to the viewer the director is inspired by such great films as "Requiem for a dream", "Trainspotting" and numinous others. The editing, extreme close-ups of eye pupils, the choice of music, the movement of camera and the idea of attaching the camera to the body "camera-to-face" while running, is similar to "Requiem for a dream". Despite the fact, that it is not a original in it's craftsmanship, the film is actually pretty well done. But maybe the success should belong to Jakob Ejersbo, the writer of the novel? It has a slow start, because it uses the first hour for introducing the characters. Which is a bit to long. But when the story finally kicks of, it's exciting and thrilling. The acting can sometimes be a bit pourly and over the top, but Claus Riis Østergaard as Allan levels it up.

All in all I think is a great film, but it would have been even better, if only the pace of the story in the beginning were faster and if it was shorten a bit. Enjoy.

I saw this film at a special pre-premiere screening and knowing that Danish film has taken quite a beating this last decade with a lot of really bad films ("Den eneste ene" and the "Kærlighed ved første hik" trilogy being excellent examples). It seemed to me that the Danish movie industry were only able to produce two kinds of film: crappy romantic comedies or dogme films. The dogme films can be quite interesting but they have just been produced in too large a number to remain interesting.

So my hopes were quite low going into the cinema to see Nordkraft (not having read the book either) but all my worries were put to rest very quickly because I was taken aback by the visual style of the film which is very interesting. Also the storytelling element of the film worked very well and the fact that the story is split into three is very appealing and interesting.

The characters in the film must be said to be the most important aspect of the film and luckily they work quite well. Especially Thure Lindhardt who plays Steso is very good because he is very good at making his character edgy and extreme but still believable. Signe Egholm Olsen is also quite good and works very well in suspenseful scenes. Of the three main actors Claus Riis Østergaard is the worst but he is still good don't get me wrong. One of the most powerful scenes in the entire movie is with Steso's father, Lars Mikkelsen because Lars Mikkelsen (who is a far better actor than his brother by the way) is such an incredibly intense actor.

The only thing that I feel pulls this film in a negative direction is the fact that it is afraid to be its own film. It borrows heavily on the visual style from Requiem for a Dream and in terms of storytelling and thats a shame because Nordkraft definitely has the potential to be its own film.

All in all a very decent Danish drama: 7 out of 10

At times films of the same genre tend to be very similar in both style and substance. In the case of Nordkraft director Ole Christian Madsen at times crosses the border between being inspired and copying. Visually, the film bears a striking resemblance to "Requiem For a Dream" (another film abut drug abuse) and at times the soundtrack even sounds identical. This at times makes the film come a bit too close to being a copy, which is a shame, as it is a fine film about a number of people caught in the drug underworld. The film depicts the way a number of people try to escape the drugs and the environment, but realize how hard it is to turn your back on a world you have lived in for so long. The movie follows three stories, all well acted, but one of the stories concerning a young girl and her relationship with her pusher boyfriend, is a bit shallow. The other two stories (concerning a junkie trying to quit to get his girlfriend back, and a former drug-runner trying to start a new life) dominate the film. Generally a good film, and visually one of the best Danish films in years, even though Madsen could have leaned a bit less on the previous films in the genre.