R

A film set in a Danish prison. Rune has been given two years. He is young, quiet, and inside for the first time. He learns on the first day. There is an order on the wing; which table you sit at, who you do not look at, when you do not speak. It is a place divided by identity. The Danes on one floor, the Arabs on another, and the two sides do not mix. Rune is paying a debt. To protect himself he starts doing someone's work, and the work is carrying drugs. On the other floor there is Rashid. He is inside the same system, and without ever properly knowing each other the two men become two links of one chain. From there the film is a story of rising. Rune proves useful, earns trust, and goes deeper. What the narrative is interested in is not crime but a system: the prison in this film works less like a place of punishment than a closed business with its own economy. The violence is sudden and short. The narrative never builds up a fight; it happens in a few seconds and the camera does not pull away. The tone is close to documentary. Handheld camera, natural light, and scenes without music. It was shot in a real prison, at Horsens; the building was about to close at the time. The film was named Best Film at two separate Danish national awards. Pilou Asbæk, Dulfi Al-Jabouri and Roland Møller are in the cast. Tobias Lindholm and Michael Noer directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes realistic prison films and Nordic hardness. Who it is not for: anyone looking for hope; the film gives no room to breathe anywhere and the ending is abrupt.