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SXSW capsule preview: ‘In a Better World’
Young Christian and his father Claus have moved from London to Denmark following the death of Christian’s mother, a loss the child struggles to process as he holes up in his cramped room, isolated from his father.
At his new school Christian befriends bullied classmate Elias, who finds comfort in his new companion. Elias is enduring his own difficulties at home as his parents work their way through a separation with his doctor father splitting time between an African refugee camp and Denmark.
The two children form an unequal but touching alliance, with Christian controlling the weaker Elias, as they both deal with the frustration of their parents not being exactly who their children hope them to be.
A youthful and dangerous bout of rebellion tests the limits of the two boys’ friendship and their relationship with their parents, as unspoken fears and resentments eventually boil over at home.
If this Academy Award winning film was produced by an American studio, it would likely play as a straight horror film, with the troubled Christian (William Jøhnk Nielsen in an incredible debut performance) depicted as the embodiment of evil, but Bier delivers a beautiful and nuanced film with characters that earn our sympathies without asking for them.
“In a Better World” screens Friday, March 11 at 6 p.m. at the State Theatre and again on Saturday, March 12 at 6 p.m. at the Alamo South.
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