In a Better World

In A Better World

If there was a better world the characters of this film would not have suffered so much. For that matter I also would not have been in such pain. This is a superb film that has garnished best foreign film award and also an award for director Susanne Bier. The Danish film has English sub titles.

Everybody in the film is suffering and as part of the audience I also felt the pain. It is interesting to note that the Danish title Haevnen translates as revenge. This is a better title than the English title.

Two families take centre stage as the drama unfolds. Anton is a saintly doctor working in Africa to save lives in a tented refugee camp. He loves his wife and son. Unfortunately for all the family he had briefly strayed while working in Africa and his wife cannot forgive him. They separate and son Elias is left to live separately with both parents. Elias has a good friend Christian.

Christian suffers since the death of his mother. He has trouble relating to his father and he seems to have a scheming mind to get back at the world.

In one situation Anton breaks up a fight with two boys. The father of one of the boys yells at Anton and slaps him for touching his son. The soft spoken Anton tries to reason with the bully father and explains he was trying to help. The bully father continues to be a problem with Anton.

Christian and Elias want revenge and plot to make a bomb to blow up the bully’s van. It all goes wrong and Elias almost dies.

It took that horrid action for the families to sort themselves out. In other words this Danish film has a rather Hollywood ending. Before the conclusion I had to sit through all the trauma.

Obviously the direction was superb because Susanne Bier won an award. The actors all perform well. Each issue was heavy duty. The problems in the camp in Africa were a secondary plot but enough for a movie in itself. Anton worked so hard to help saves lives in the camp. When the big terrorist who had brutally harmed many of the camp survivors came for help with a serious leg wound Anton was faced with an ethical dilemma.

Elias faces the crisis of his parent’s divorce. He also was traumatized when he saw the bully hit his father.

Christian is in torment because of his mother’s death. He also did not like watching Anton being hit by the bully. He didn’t know how to let out his frustration in an acceptable manner. He wanted revenge and chose a violent method that almost killed his good friend.

The cinematography is excellent. The camera lingers on a face or a situation. In one scene the camera focuses on a spider web with the spider firmly entrenched in the middle. I realized this was an analogy for the total film. Everybody felt trapped in one way or another and couldn’t seem to get out of the predicament.

Everybody was searching for a better world.