After the Wedding

To be shown: 17 September 2007

Denmark/UK/Sweden 2006
Director: Susanne Bier
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen,Sidse Babett Knudsen, Rolf Lassgard, Mona Malm.
Certificate 15. 119 minutes. Subtitles.

Synopsis

Jacob Petersen (Mads Mikkelsen) a Danish man living in India is helping to run an orphanage.
His commitment to the children is complete but it becomes clear that the venture is in dire need of financial support.
This arrives in the provision of a free standing grant from a Copenhagen businessman but with the condition that Jacob meets him face to face.
He is very reluctant to return to his homeland and does not wish to leave the children but the money must be secured.
In Copenhagen Jacob meets Jorgen (Rolf Lassgard), a charismatic and forceful character who carries all before him and is not used to being thwarted.
Jacob wishes only to clinch the deal and return to India but Jorgen insists that he is a guest at the wedding of his daughter and it is clear that he is motivated by more than hospitality.
After the Wedding is a drama of family revelations and screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen has presented his characters with consumate skill.
Director Susanne Bier keeps a tight control of her material and gives us a film that is honest and affecting.
Mads Mikkelsen is Denmarks brightest star - being in a James Bond movie puts you in another league even when you are the villian.
In After the Wedding his performance is matched by a superb ensemble of co-stars who give a richly obseved emotional life to their characters Nominated best foreign language film Oscar 2006.

Notes

New Danish Cinema has over the last 20 years met with striking success. So successful in fact that in January 2007 a lecture in London was promoting the New Danish Model for Filmmaking: A Cultural Resource for Small Nations.

Mads Mikkelsen began his career as a dancer. Well regarded at home for performances in Pusher and many Danish films his breakthrough into international recognition was King Arthur (2004) with Clive Owen and Kiera Knightley.

Before the 1990s few Danish films gained international recognition. Two that did were Pelle The Conquerer (director: Bille August) 1987 Palmes d'Or and Oscar and Babette's Feast (dir:Gabriel Axel) 1987

Rolf Lassgard the alpha male Jorgen in After the Wedding is hugely popular in Denmark for his work in the theatre. He gained international recognition in Under the Sun (1998) playing a lonely illiterate farmer. So - no type casting there then.