Time to update what teenagers are capable of?

The Secret We Keep (Danish, 2025)
Miniseries

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33496221/

Imagine travelling back in time by just over a hundred years. Children were expected to express gratitude for their very existence. The mere fact that they survived the challenging early years of life and did not fall victim to infectious diseases was, in itself, a miracle. They had to be eternally thankful to their parents for safeguarding them from these harmful factors. During that era, children had no rights; they were to be seen and not heard. 

Fast forward to the 21st century. Children are no longer perceived as an annoyance; rather, family life revolves around them. They are shielded and have a detailed schedule planned. Family activities centre on them. Children have rights, and the state goes to great lengths to ensure their protection, education, healthcare, shelter, and proper nutrition, as outlined by the 1959 UN Charter which guarantees these rights. 

These achievements have been beneficial. Children are no longer merely fillers for deceased or retired workers. They require a significant period of personal development known as childhood. At this stage, nothing is expected of them except to absorb knowledge, whether actively or passively, that they can utilise in adulthood. 

The trouble is this: all the good nourishment and access to knowledge have made children mature much earlier than their forefathers. In the eyes of society (and law), nothing is expected of them. They are deemed incapable of committing any crime. In their minds, they believe they are unable to consent to anything or to engage in complex matters such as robbing a bank or wooing someone into sex. 

Guess what? The world has taken a leap of change while they were napping. The ease of acquiring information from the World Wide Web at a moment's notice has replaced traditional discussions about ‘birds and bees’ or familiarising oneself with subversives. Nothing is taboo or classified anymore.

We end up with all-knowing teenagers who possess excellent nourishment and health due to science, hovering about like firecrackers with unlit fuses, ready to explode when the moment is right. 

This unsettling miniseries portrays a scenario in which two affluent neighbours, whose husbands are business partners, are also close friends. They share numerous similarities, both having teenage sons and each employing au pairs of Filipina heritage. 

One of the au pairs approached her neighbour's Madame to express her dissatisfaction with her employer. The Madame merely attempted to cut the conversation short, likely not wanting to jeopardise her friendship with the neighbour. The next day, the au pair goes missing. Everyone assumes she has merely run away from home. The police are called in. Things take a turn when the Madame begins to suspect that the husband may have had some involvement in her disappearance. A week later, her body is discovered floating in the lake.

Spoiler alert: As it turns out, one of the teenage sons had raped the Filipina. Feeling guilty and with no one to turn to, she took her own life. The trouble is that the youngster cannot be charged with rape. Legally, he is incapable of such an act. Forget that he is of Nordic stock, athletic, and a school wrestler. If anything, the deceased would be accused of sexual assault of the teenager! Probably because Filipinas are economically disadvantaged, occupy the lower strata of society, and are foreigners, the matter dies a natural death. Everyone moves on with their lives, nonetheless, dragging along huge burdens.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

If there is a God...

Godland (Vanskabte Land, Volaða land, Icelandic, Danish; 2022)

Written & Directed: Hlynur Pálmason

The colonial masters must have thought they were doing the natives a favour by coming to their country and 'civilising' them. The religious people of the colonising race thought bringing religion to their shores would 'save' the natives from the eternal damnation of hellfire as well as earn them a few brownie points in the eyes of God.

Actually, the primary aim of the invaders was to get manpower. Europe had awoken from a great slumber. They had improved their weapons and were on a rampage. They had devised a way to mass-produce agricultural produce. For that, they needed manpower, and slavery was found to be a convenient way. After all, the African leaders would bend over backwards to capture their kind and enemies from opposing villages for this trade.

When people from the West heard of the abysmal conditions in which slaves lived and worked, a boycott of slave-produced products was mooted. Coincidentally, the Industrial Revolution exploded then. The masters ditched the slave trade, but in place came bonded labourers and overworked factory workers to extract natural resources for invaders to usurp for a song.

Perhaps religion is the soothing elixir to soothe the hurt caused by the rapacious abuse of the natives. Whilst the left hand cheats them blind, the right hand gives the analgesic opiate to alleviate the pain. The colonialists diverted the natives from their traditional belief, which had served them well, to an alien one, which only served the perpetrators well. The host were made to look down on their own religion.

This extremely slow-moving movie narrates the tale of a Danish priest, Lucas, who is sent to the interiors of Iceland through a rugged sea and overland journey to spread the good news of Christianity to the Danish pioneers. Lucas also has a side interest. He enjoys taking outdoor photographs with his spanking-new device called a camera. 

It was the harsh journey, the near-death experience or the inability to grasp the new tongue Lucas could not fit in. He questions his whole purpose of being there. Due to the complex Icelandic language, he cannot mingle in the community's conversations. He queries God's purpose in sending him there. He cannot even perform his priestly duties of leading a prayer and listening to his parish's woes. If there were a God, would he make his servants endure such difficulties to spread His words?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Party like 1999?

Melancholia (2011)

You realise that the end is near, that you are exiting the building soon. Your days are numbered. You are nearing the end of the road. What are your priorities? What are the next moves? Are you going to carry on life telling yourself that it is all just doomsday prophesies and that life will go on to eternity? Will you go on accumulating wealth or accumulating brownie points for your afterlife or rebirths? Would you let your hair down and party like there is no tomorrow or in late Prince's song - party like it is 1999?! Would you just ignore rituals and formalities?

This may be the question that the story seems to convey but not in the usual Hollywood's bigger-than-life apocalyptic style that we are used too. Absent are the mega-destruction of mammoth buildings and tsunami-like waves or the building of suspense by the cable news network. It is set in a private wedding function at the reclusive estate in the edge of the world. The bride, Justine (Kirstin Durst), an undecided bride is about the tie the knot with her beau. Arriving late at the wedding dinner to be greeted are her dysfunctional family members, her boss and friends. Justin's sister, Claire and her husband are the main organisers of the wedding. Justine's mother is a bitter and pessimistic lady who is disillusioned with the institution of marriage. Her slightly boisterous father is also there, much to the annoyance of the mother.

In the backdrop is the news of a possible collision of a blue planet, codenamed Melancholia, which may have an inevitable head-on collision with Earth.

In the second part of the film, where the focus is on Claire, the sister, Melancholia actually orbits around the Sun to cross Earth's path. Claire is the one who is acting strangely with the impending doom.

This is not your usual fare of doomsday. It gives the viewer the perspective of life. What are we aiming for? We all do things for the moment. Things are not going to be permanent. We all think we know everything and we have everything in control. Do we really? Everything has a shelf life. Then what?

Children these days!

In a better world (Haevnen, Danish, 2010)
This Danish Academy Award winning film in an unusual one dealing with complex issues. Two stories go concurrently told in present and past.

It starts with a doctor, Dr Anton, in Sudan treating victims of atrocities of militiamen. He has a son, Elias, back home in Denmark who befriends Christian who saved him from some school bullies. Christian's mother recently died from cancer and he is upset with his father of not doing enough to save his mother.
Elias' parents (Dr Anton and Dr Marianne) are in the process of separation.
One day, while Dr Anton is out in town with Elias in Denmark, his brother and Christian, the good doctor tries to stop a fight between two boys. The father of the boy defends his child and hits Dr Anton. The boys are disappointed that he did not fight back.
Dr Anton, one day, back in Sudan, receives the warlord who been torturing and killing people, with a maggot infested leg wound to be treated. In spite of objection from the local staff, he treats him as a patient appropriately diligently. As he was getting better, he was mocking the doctor for failing to save another patient. He suggested that his assistant takes over his patient because his of preference for necrophilia! The incensed doctor drags him to the patient's relative who beat the pulp out of him.
Back home, Christian's relationship with his father worsens. With a little help from the internet he builds a bomb from old fireworks to bomb the car driven by Dr Anton's assailant. The plan goes awry when 2 innocent joggers pass by. Seeing that Elias runs to alert them and gets hurt in the process. Things gets complicated when Christian thinks that Elias is dead. He attempts suicides by trying to jump off a building. He is saved in the nick of time by Anton.

Everybody reconciles - Anton and Marianne, Elias and his family, Christian and family. Anton returns to Sudan to continue his humanitarian work.

The story goes on to tell the difficulties parents go through trying to bring children up. They have to deal with their own problems and to put up with all the nonsense that ungrateful and arrogant children gives them. All the teachings that the parents seem to impart seem exercise in futility. Modern parenting is not easy!

Cold and dark...

Forbrydelsen (The Crime, Danish; 2007) Season 1

Just got suckered into another mini series. This time it the original make of 'The Killing' in Danish. The Danish language edition of the American counterpart is supposed to be more engrossing with more human element. It is a cold and dark story befitting the country it is shot in.
Three main characters/couples are mainstay of the show.
Sarah Lund is drawn into a case of missing teenager, Nanna Larsen, on the day she is supposed to do her last police duty as she is leaving her job to settle in Stockholm. She is so sucked into the case that she lets her family leave without her. On the side, there are the parents of the missing teenage girl who get the bad news of her death at the end of episode one. Then there is Troels Hartmann, the local candidate for Mayor in whose car the murdered girl was found submerged in the lake.
The story drags on to 20 hours (20 episodes) before the mystery of the murder unfolds.
It proceeds slowly exploring the trauma that the parents of teenagers go through, questioning their failure as parents, questioning the plan of God. The police, albeit their officers' dedication, only proceed slowly. This film reveals the bits and piece of evidence that they pick up in crumbs to tie the case together.
On the political front, there is definitely something brewing... Let us see how it ends!
It is interesting to note how a typical Nordic society have absorbed Arabs and Pakistanis into their society. Of course, the immigrant society have also absorbed the language. (unlike ....)

After 8 episodes.....
Sarah Lund keeps postponing her trip off to Sweden again and again as she literally becomes obsessed with case. At one point, she practically stopped the pilot before lift off when she thought she had bode farewell to her job, just because she decided to complete her investigation.
The parents of the victim are still reeling over their loss. Mrs Larsen calls for blood. The father, on the other hand, practices restraint with his prior brush with the law but looks like he may take the law into his own hands.
One of Nanna's teachers, Rama, is somehow seem to be the last person to have seen her alive and is initially high on the suspect list. Police investigation actually reveals that he may actually be trying to save an immigrant Moslem girl from a forced marriage.
The Mayor prospect politician who advocates role models in immigrant population to uplift living conditions in the community, had used Rama as one one of his icons. As the investigation initially implicated Rama as a possible murderer, pressure mounts on Troels to drop Rama. Standing on the dictum that one is innocent until proved guilty, he declines. This brings to a situation of a vote of no confidence against me in the party and possibility of dropping of him as the candidate for Mayor of Copenhagen.
And the story drags on...