1:1 (2006) User Reviews

Worth Watching

[elk-frodi · 7/10 · 30 September 2006]

This movie is worth watching. Although the setting is Denmark and the protagonist is Palestinian, the story is universal and is a fitting allegory for our times. Although the ignorance and stupidity may be exaggerated - unfortunately not as much as I would like to think - the fact is that people naturally understand, believe, and side with people that resemble themselves. Injury and suffering brought upon anyone, but especially those we know and love, can produce powerful emotions that cloud our judgment. I found that often the distrust displayed by the central characters was not the typical baseless distrust portrayed in similar stories but that time was spent to show the physical evidence and reasoning that made the distasteful and dishonorable views and actions of those characters understandable as errors in human judgment rather than the results of an inability to think whatsoever.

Take your high school aged kids to see this one for sure!

[efcarter · 7/10 · 8 January 2007]

Even though the story of racism is not a new story, the message to stop racism cannot be delivered too many times. Any racism, within any country, against any ethnicity, only causes a perpetuation of violence so any film that sends the message to stop this perpetuation will always be supported by me. This film is about racism and it could have been done in any country, between any races, the story is the same, the ending is always very sad, but very real and true. This story is about a racial clash that comes up between the Danes and some Palestinian immigrants after a young Dane boy (Per) is found beaten up lying in the street. The sister (Mei) of the boy is dating a Palestinian boy (Hadi or Shadi?) who has a brother with a questionable past. Because of the timing of some events the brother becomes a likely suspect. The school friends of Per want revenge and take it out on the wrong person. One of the strongest messages in the film is about whether or not the boyfriend will report what he knows about his brother. He keeps some vital information to himself that causes you to stay engaged and maybe even enraged. The emotional development of each of the characters is excellent. Even the side story of strife between the mother and grandmother was played out perfectly. The end of the film does not tell you if the boy of the second beating tells anyone who did it, there is an opportunity to slow down the perpetuation of the violence at this point and the character has been developed so well that you want to believe that he does not seek revenge and never tells who beat him up. Too bad this film is not being shown in high schools!

Poorly made

[jaltesorensen · 1/10 · 5 February 2006]

This is, in my opinion, one of the worst Danish movies ever. The whole have we been told a thousand times before; The dumb and intolerant people (the Danes) and the misunderstood Palestinian boy. The Palestinian is of course innocent, though he knows some criminals. The Palestinian falls in love with a Danish girl. All in all very boring, and a VERY used story-concept. The whole plot behind the movie is that we Danes are intolerant, and that the Palestinians are misunderstood - in reel life nothing is that black and white, tolerance works both ways. But it is very boring and poorly made. Don't watch it, except if you vote for SF or Ø.