This is the story of Erik, albert Rudbeck Lindhardt, and his younger brother Elmer, Harald Kaiser Hermann, who are sent to an orphanage/school when their mother is taken ill and can't look after them.
It is late sixties Denmark and has constant references to the American space programme and moon landings, which Elmer is obsessed with. However, the story is about the terrible cruelty and violence, including sexual, that the boys suffered while there.
The head is played by Lars Mikkelson who approves and partakes in the violence, but it is all done for their own good. Of course it is.
The only teacher with an ounce of compassion is played by Sophie Grabal, who is shocked by what she see's but finds it difficult to give real help due to feeling isolated as a woman among many men. Incidentally this teams Grabal and Mikkelson again, who were both in the excellent 'the killing' a few years earlier.
Well worth watching, excellently acted but definitely not a feel good movie. It's what I would have expected from Victorian Britain not Denmark in the swinging sixties.
It is late sixties Denmark and has constant references to the American space programme and moon landings, which Elmer is obsessed with. However, the story is about the terrible cruelty and violence, including sexual, that the boys suffered while there.
The head is played by Lars Mikkelson who approves and partakes in the violence, but it is all done for their own good. Of course it is.
The only teacher with an ounce of compassion is played by Sophie Grabal, who is shocked by what she see's but finds it difficult to give real help due to feeling isolated as a woman among many men. Incidentally this teams Grabal and Mikkelson again, who were both in the excellent 'the killing' a few years earlier.
Well worth watching, excellently acted but definitely not a feel good movie. It's what I would have expected from Victorian Britain not Denmark in the swinging sixties.