Easter is here, but the cinema bunny doesn’t have much in the way of releases this week. Perhaps it’s time to brush up on your Danish reading skills since the best films this week (such as Cannes Jury Prize-winning Mommy and Icelandic drama Life In A Fishbowl) are foreign language and subtitled. And then there’s Fast & Furious 7. The last in this long-running franchise to star ill-fated actor Paul Walker is reviewed this issue.
Cinemateket has several screenings of its ‘Documentary of the Month’ line up, which for April is Our Man in Tehran. Via interviews with CIA agents, Canadian and American politicians and citing various documentation, the film traces the history of the Iranian revolution and the now infamous occupation of the US Embassy, which formed the centrepiece of Ben Affleck’s Oscar-winning film Argo. This documentary also covers the rescue of that film’s six diplomats, which was carried out by CIA agent Tony Mendez, who features in this documentary. The 18:15 screening on April 7 will feature a reception before the show with refreshments – courtesy of the Canadian and American embassies.
This Sunday (April 5) at 14:15 is the first of Cinemateket’s bi-monthly screenings of ‘Danish Films with English Subs’. The Monastery is a 2006 documentary by Pernille Rose Grønkjær that follows 82-year-old bachelor Mr Vig, who has never known love, and Sister Amvrosija, a young Russian nun. Fifty years ago Mr Vig purchased a castle in the Danish countryside with the intention of turning it into a monastery. He’s about to realise his dream when he finds that the nuns have plans and wills all of their own. Tickets are 70kr and an extra 40kr will get you coffee and a pastry. For a full Cinemateket program, visit dfi.dk/Filmhuset.
April 8 will see the start of CPH:PIX – Denmark’s tentpole festival for fiction cinema. The opening film is Bridgend, a fictional film by Danish documentarist Jeppe Ronde that concerns the factual mass-suicide of Welsh teenagers in the eponymous town. Be sure to check out the full festival listings at cphpix.dk and book early.
