This is a riveting film that I had difficulty tearing myself away from and am having difficulty forgetting. It starts with a young boy being rented to his father's brother to be abused and doesn't get any brighter, except for a couple of episodes where the brothers are interacting. The actors are all excellent, particularly the young man playing Aske, at the center of the film.
The whole film has a sense of inevitability, as though Aske has no way to change his circumstances. The change that does come is fleeting. The world of the film is unforgiving with only small moments of kindness and love.
Keywords: lgbtrapeincestcar accidentchild abuse
Plot summary
The two brothers Aske and Bastian live with their father, Lasse, in a world of fear, violence and alcohol but the brothers' strong and close relationship means everything. Aske must serve his father's sexual needs, as well as paying customers and his father's friend, Hans. Aske tries everything to keep his little brother out of it all so that he won't experience the same as himself. But one day Bastian is abused by their father. The brothers choose to move to Norway, far away in the beautiful mountains. Their friendship outshines everything. They are together and far away from their evil father.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Movie Reviews
Brutal, compelling film
Disturbing to the end
The pre-credits sequence of this film sets the tone for the rest of it. While it starts off innocently enough as though it's a happy family gathering, things go downhill from there. From these few minutes of the movie, we find that the father is a deplorable human being and you can quickly figure out that he is involved in some equally deplorable people.
The lead character, Aske, is a boy who has been abused by his father, "hired out" to other people and had videos made of these exploits from a very young age and, as a young adult, knows that he has to continue to live this life to protect his 12 year old brother Bastian from experiencing the pain that he has suffered in silence. Everything he does during the course of the film stems from his love for Bastian.
Aske has a best friend, Silas, who knows nothing of what Aske is going through and both innocently and desperate;y wants them both to attend a birthday party in the hope that he will get laid. After trying to fob Silas off, Aske eventually relents and agrees to go to the party. It is only when Aske attends the party that you get the sense that this is one of few moments of happiness in his otherwise bleak existence. In the course of celebrating, he is alone with a girl who likes him a lot but his inability to "perform" causes him to reveal to Silas what his father has been doing to him over the years and he runs away.
When Aske returns home after the party, he realizes that his father has abused Bastian in his absence and panics until Silas arrives and calms him down. Aske and Silas locate Bastian hiding out in his secret place. Silas realises that what Aske has told him is true and urges Aske to go to the police but Aske is scared. Silas suggest that both boys go to his parents cabin in Norway and he will tell his parents about what has been going on when they have left.
Aske and Bastian leave for the cabin by train and Silas returns home - we have to assume he then tells his parents the story and they contact the police. You need to fill in the blanks yourself.
Aske and Bastian enjoy a few days of happiness together at the cabin but back home, Silas has texted Askes phone and the father has intercepted the message and convinced him that he is Aske and that they returned home since they couldn't betray their father and that Silas should come over to talk. Silas comes over and is confronted by the father and once more, you need to fill in the blanks of what occurs between them as a few scenes later, the camera lingers on a disturbing image which I can't get out of my head.
Aske wakes up at the cabin and Bastian is not by his side. Dressing, he goes outside to find his father holding a gun to Bastians head, threatening to kill him. Aske fights his father and both he and Bastian attempt to escape but tragedy ensues leaving Aske alone.
You feel utter despair for Aske and Bastian and sympathy for Silas who just wanted to help and paid the ultimate price.
When the home, the safest place isn't safe anymore.
Just remember that this is not a film to entertain you, but it is here to open your eyes on the child abuse issue. This is one of the major problems today we're facing around the world. All the governments had taken the strict actions on the matter, yet somewhere without being noticed domestically these things keeps happening. Such a theme was this film, which is not easy to digest the ugly truth it reveals.
Looks like a B movie from the Denmark, the production quality was decent, but the topic of the film was very strong and that makes it a must see even if you think you're not made for the micro- budget, not-so-popular films.
I've seen films like 'Trade', 'Taken', 'Eden' et cetera, but this is something a new angle about when parents are directly involved in the such dirty affairs. This story was about two brothers and their miserable childhood. After their mother died of an accident, they end up in the custody of their abusive father. Life won't be the same as it was before to them, but the eldest takes all the measures to protect his little brother. Unfortunately, it looks the fate is not on their side when a terrible thing unfolds after one bad evening, which leads to a chain of events before concluding the narration with a twist.
"When I grow up I won't hit my kids."
I am really lucky to find this film, which is yet to open its wings to reach the wider audience globally. I know this is not a film to have some good time, but might disturb you with its strong contents. Yes, the film has some of the bold scenes which strongly restricts for the adult's viewing. The film was shot in some of the beautiful locations, but what the story was dealing makes us to focus only on the cruelty the two minors are encountering.
Just watch it to believe what's actually happening in the families of child abuse history. If this is what the fate of innocent children in the first world nation's lower class families, then imagine what about the second and the third world. If you had seen 'Trade of Innocents' and 'Graceland', you will get a clear picture.
The director and actors are all the fresh faces, but given a one good product as the theme wise. One of the few things I did not feel comfortable was the camera work. It was very shaky and in the initial part it had given me a hard time to get used to it. Because of that kind of screenplay, it looked like it was shot with a camcorder.
The others were the nude parts which were a bit unnecessary for a little film like this, but they went for a bold statement and I appreciate that effort. And finally the story, in some segments it did not convince me, as they were way too off from real like the accident in the beginning and dragging climax. If you won't mind these things considering it is a B movie, this film is definitely worth seeing. So here it goes my recommendation for the grown ups only.
8/10