Allegro (2005) or, His Past Was Lost in a Copenhagen Zone!

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Ulrich Thomsen's oppressed figure looms large in red on this elegant poster for Christoffer Boe's Allegro

Zetterstrøm, a famous Danish pianist, is invited to Copenhagen from his new life in New York by a man, who says that the pianist's past has been stolen, and that it is hidden inside a vacuum in the city, which is called the Zone. 

Allegro is written by Mikael Wulff (Pandaerne (2011-12)) and co-writer/director Christoffer Boe (Everything Will Be Fine/Alting Bliver Godt Igen (2010)). Deeply mysterious and aesthetically fixated, - with lovely photography by Manual Alberto Claro (Melancholia (2011)) - Allegro is very reminiscent of director Christoffer Boe's preceding film, his debut Reconstruction (2003): Once again we are in Copenhagen, where a knotty man and a beautiful woman meet and find themselves caught in a single, fantastic device. The narrative seems more outreaching in Reconstruction, however, and I also had some difficulty here in believing Helena Christensen (Chris Isaak: Wicked Game (2001), music video) falling for Ulrich Thomsen's (Banshee (2013-16)) seemingly wood-carved, charmless man, our protagonist.
Allegro is beautiful and original, but it speaks more to the brain than to the heart.
SPOILER The Zone turns out to be a box, which Zetterstrøm has created himself for storing all the things that he doesn't want to be reminded of, (that is, his past), and he can only open the box, once he learns to trust another person's love.

Watch a trailer for the film with Spanish subtitles here

Cost: Reportedly 10 mil. DKK, approximately 1.57 mil. $
Box office: Unknown - but seemingly less than 2 mil. DKK, approximately 0.31 mil. $
= Box office disaster (approximately 0.2 times the cost)
[Allegro premiered 25 August (Copenhagen International Film Festival) and runs 88 minutes. Shooting took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, and in New York. The film opened #124 in 1 theater to a tiny 505 $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #88, only played that one cinema and grossed 7k $. The only other market listed at Box Office Mojo is Brazil with 2k $. Allegro sold a measly 13,825 tickets in Denmark, which should rake in approximately 1 mil. DKK. - This was after a record first half of 2005, in which Danish films held an impressive 33 % market share of the home cinema market. The film won 1/5 Robert nominations (Denmark's Oscar). Boe returned with Offscreen (2006). Thomsen returned in The Virgin Queen (2006, miniseries) and theatrically in Clash of Egos/Sprængfarlig Bombe (2006). Supermodel Christensen returned in The Christmas Party/Julefrokosten (2009). Allegro is fresh at 63 % with a 6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Allegro?