In the Middle of the Night

Benny and Arnold live in a squatted building in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen along with other homeless people. The police come to clear the building. After that night the two friends move into an abandoned factory and set about making an order of their own there: a shared kitchen, shared money, a life with nobody in charge. Erik Balling's film was the most expensive production made in Denmark at the time. Kim Larsen takes the lead; he was one of the country's best known singers and he wrote the music for the film himself. The album sold heavily quite apart from the film. The telling both praises the idea of a free community, one that recalls Christiania, and shows how hard it is.