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...