December 6, 2010

Scandinavian Film Festival - Extra Day - Little Soldier

In the last day of the festival I went to see Lille Soldat here is the review of the movie.


Director: Annette K.Olesen
Cast: Trine Dyrholm, Lorna Brown, Finn Nielsen
Writer: Kim Fupz Aakeson
Music: Kaare Bjerkø
Production: Denmark, 2008
Release Date: 14 November 2008 (Denmark)
Runtime: 100 Minutes
Original Name: Lille soldat
IMDB Link: Little Soldier
Trailer: Little Soldier

Lotte, an ex soldier, is prematurely brought back to Denmark after her service in Afghanistan. At the beginning, her psychological numbness makes her impossible to readapt to everyday life. After some weeks her father, who she didn’t saw in long time, will try to reenter in her life. Broke and unemployed Lotte asks her father (Far) for some money but he, considering her strength and training se had as a combatant, gives her instead a job as a private bodyguard and driver for his girl. Soon she discovers that her father is running a brothel and that he traffics African young women across Europe. Her father justified himself explaining that actually, he is helping these prostitutes who need to send money to their families in Africa.  Lotte has to take Lily, her father favorite young lover to her costumers every day. However, Lily won´t trust Lotte to be a good driver since she is a woman. Little by little Lotte will discover  her father´s business, the way woman are treated as goods, their exposition to dangerous and violent clients and the impossibility of getting out of that kind of life. As film progresses Lily and Lotte will find out that, they have more in common than they had believed. Lotte will try to help Lily to get out and reunite with her daughter and what´s more important Lotte will understand her conflictive relationship with her father and who she is.

This is probably the most interesting movie of the festival and I was lucky to see this movie the last day.  There are many things to comment about this movie so I will try to be as organized as I can. Some of the topics that the movie touches are the moral behind the characters actions, the unseen world of prostitution and the father-daughter relationship. Every character believes that he is doing good to others, Lotte believes she was fighting Terrorism by going into war, Far (Lotte´s father) believes he is helping the prostitutes by giving them work, Lily believes that her sacrifice is necessary so she can send some money to her daughter. Lotte´s character is very complex and well developed thought-out the movie. The new relationship with her father, who was absent when she was young, will lead her to ambiguous feelings towards him. She dislikes the fact that he only contact her by sending gifts to her, but at the same time she seeks acceptance from his father. At the same time Lotte seems to be a masculine woman, this is very clear in her way to approach other men. I believe that Lotte is in seeking of her own identity as a woman. There are more things to talk about, but I will finish my review here. Little Soldier is a movie that you can´t miss.

No comments:

Post a Comment