Before the Frost

In the middle of the nineteenth century in Denmark, the old farmer Jens's harvest fails. Winter is coming and there is not enough food in the house. He sits down to a deal with his wealthy neighbour: the land and his daughter's marriage are on the table. Jens knows what that means. To get the family through the winter, he leaves his own standards behind one step at a time. Michael Noer's film makes no use of the decorative side of period drama: mud, cold, hunger and bargaining. That the daughter's consent is never asked for sits at the centre of the story, and the telling neither justifies it nor turns the father into a monster; it shows what poverty makes possible. Jesper Christensen plays Jens and won international prizes for the part. The film screened in Toronto in 2018.