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Directed by Ernst Johansen, Lasse Nielsen
Written by Lasse Nielsen, Bent Petersen
Starring Anders Agensø, Peter Bjerg, Ove Sprogøe
Unrated • 1978 • 90 minutes
by Deeky Wentworth
There is a certain nonchalance that always stuns me when watching European
films. The concept that homosexuality is natural is so utterly foreign, so
incomprehensible here in the States, but in Europe it is so often treated as a
non-issue, that it's invariably striking to us "free-thinking, open-minded"
Americans. Bo (Anders Agensø) has had it with public school. He's not a bad kid, but he ends up in
continuation school nonetheless. The headmaster there is stern, but there is
plenty of hot water, the beds are cozy, so it ain't all that bad. The headmaster
also has a son, a charming little lad named Kim. Kim is all blonde hair and big
eyes and Bo immediately takes a liking to him. The two become fast friends when Bo takes Kim under his wing. The two spend
their free time in the woods, bird-watching, drinking stolen wine and talking
about Indians. Typical boyish behaviour, I guess, if you're Danish. Kim (Peter Bjerg) becomes
so enamored of Bo, he takes to climbing out his window at night to sneak into
his new friend's bed. Overall, the school seems fairly liberal, for a low key reform school. Sure,
they sing hymns at breakfast, but there is frank discussions of drugs, and
politics, all mixed in with the touchy-feely crap so prevalent in the Seventies.
Don't let the sun blast your shadow. Don't let the milk float ride your
mind. Also on the curriculum, an end-of-year show, where the students have decided
to interpret and perform the Ten Commandments. Actually, the clever Danes have
winnowed it down to just six, the other four deemed irrelevant in the modern
world. But when one of the boys plasters the restroom with pornography, the
headmaster (Ove Sprogøe) immediately moves to have him expelled. Only a week before
graduation, the punishment is seen as unnecessarily harsh. And in an act of
solidarity, half the students stage a walk out, and refuse to return to class
unless their friend Ole is allowed to graduate. The headmaster doesn't want to appear weak, but the embarrassment over the
protest grows too much, and he eventually caves. Soon all the kids are back to
class and once again working on their big end-of-term production. The second commandment is delivered as a short film, the interpretation of Love Others As
You Love Yourself. "Have you seen the movie?" the headmaster asks. "No. Isn't
this exciting?" replies one of the teachers. The projector whirs: While folksy Danish pop exudes from the soundtrack, the
figures of Bo and Kim meet in the forest. They warmly embrace, it's a long,
slow-motion hug. Kim removes his shirt, and the two boys kiss. Fade to black. And we're left there scratching our collective heads wondering what the point was. Kim is too young for this to work as a love story. It's not so much charming as tip-toeing up to the edge of creepy. The film isn't lurid, mind you, I just don't know how seriously we're supposed to take a relationship when one of the actors is on the other side of pubescence.
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