In a Better World-Hævnen (2010)

Directed by: Susanne Bier | 113 minutes | drama | Actors: Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen, William Jøhnk Nielsen, Markus Rygaard, Wil Johnson, Eddy Kimani, Emily Mglaya, Gabriel Muli, June Waweru, Mary Hounu Moat, Synah Berchet, Elsebeth Steentoft, Satu Helena Mikkelinen, Camilla Gottlieb, Simon Maagaard Holm, Emil Nicolai Helms, Martin Buch, Toke Lars Bjarke, Anette Støvelbæk, Preben Harris, Birthe Neumann, Paw Henriksen, Jesper Lohmann, Bodil Jørgensen, Rikke Louise Andersson, Kim Bodnia, Lars Kaalund, Camilla Bendix

‘In a Better World’ tells the story of two families who each in their own way have to deal with a loss. The two sons of both families meet at school. Elias is the son of Anton and Marianne who live separately. Elias is bullied at school. He has little contact with his father. He is a doctor in a refugee camp in Africa and is therefore rarely at home. Elias is silent to his mother about his problems at school.

Christian comes to this school from England, his mother recently passed away. He comes to live with his grandmother, the relationship with his father Claus is bad because he has lied to him about the disease from which his mother died. Christian is bitter and angry at the whole world, but especially at his father. On his first day of school, he witnesses Elias’s bullying and beats the perpetrator – without others witnessing it – and threatens him with a knife. When Elias sees this, they cover each other and deny the threat of a knife.

Thus, these two hurt boys become unconditional friends and recognize each other’s sadness and bitterness. Elias is the soft, highly impressionable boy and is impressed by the calculating and hard Christian. This one thinks that you should take unrelenting and hard-hitting action and revenge. Christian threatens to drag Elias further and further. Christian’s lust for revenge continues to grow. Elias is increasingly faced with the question of whether he should be loyal to his friend who first helped him fight his bullies or give up if Christiaan continues. Simultaneously with this mainline runs the story of the imminent divorce of Anton and Marianne and their struggle to break up permanently.

The story has some emphatically moralistic features. Characteristics of characters are sometimes a bit thick, which makes some developments seem a bit forced. Anton, for example, wants to show the children that it is stupid if you hit back and allows himself to be beaten repeatedly by a quarrel in front of his children and Christian. The ethical dilemma is also greatly exacerbated when Anton, back in the camp in Africa, does not oppose a lynching of a criminal guerrilla fighter for whom he had previously committed himself unreservedly as a medic (while knowing that it was a criminal who killed women and killed babies). For example, ‘explanatory traits’ of good and bad, sadness, mourning and coping are accentuated somewhat too emphatically.

The cast is the crème de la crème with actors such as Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm and Ulrich Thomsen who have already earned their laurels. As can be expected, they play extremely professionally, but the real star performances are for the young actors William Jøhnk Nielsen (Christian) and Markus Rygaard (Elias). They are very believable.

It all looks slick, the camera work leads to atmospheric images, the shots of Danish and African landscapes are without exception beautifully taken care of. However, the developments and the ending are fairly predictable, the story develops in a controlled manner and then ripples on – in itself very pleasantly – somewhat. Susanne Bier previously convinced with films such as ‘Open Hearts’, ‘After the Wedding’ and ‘Brothers’. Even now she puts down an excellent film. ‘In a Better World’ was awarded the 2011 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. With the caveat that quite a few themes are tied together in the storyline, the verdict remains: a heartwarming drama.