+ Best Low-Budget Movie of the Year
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Kris is a young woman farmer who lives with her old uncle in Southern Jutland, where she manages the farm and their household at the expense of her interest in becoming a veterinarian and having a romantic and sexual life as well.
Onkel is written and directed by Frelle Petersen (Hundeliv/Where Have All the Good Men Gone (2016)).
It is an extremely quiet and small film in terms of scale and conflict; the central conflict is within Kris herself, as a friendly local veterinarian and a sweet young man she meets force her to reevaluate her life: Would selling the farm and no longer being the primary care person for her uncle be an option?
Responsibility and familial care are decisive elements of Kris' life, and the film portrays a very sympathetic group of people, who are simple, good folks. Petersen has managed to get some very precise and warm performances out of his cast of amateur actors: Jette Søndergaard (Hundeliv) and Peter Hansen Tygesen, portraying Kris and her uncle, are in fact niece and uncle in real life, and I wouldn't be surprised if Ole Caspersen, who plays the veterinarian Johannes, is also a veterinarian in real life. An added bonus pleasure for Danish audiences is the fact that everyone in Onkel speaks with authentic Southern Jutland accent.
The first more than 8 minutes go by without dialog, as we are introduced to the routine-driven life in this place, but Kris' dilemma becomes compelling, and the film has warmth and humor as well. Petersen has even co-produced, photographed and edited the film himself: The vast landscapes and impressive farming machines are inherently fascinating and cinematic, and Petersen has an eye for this. But the natural beauty is withheld visually, just as Kris' life is chaste and withheld.
The film's culmination is not entirely satisfying, SPOILER as Kris stabs out at her budding romance, causing her to lose him. She goes on, without shedding tears, cutting herself out from life around the farm, but we as audiences need a release of some kind, and need to see that the tenderness and love that Kris rejects exists without her.
Related post:
Frelle Petersen: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2019 in films - according to Film Excess
Cost: 3.5 mil. DKK, equaling approximately 0.52 mil. $
Box office: Uncertain, likely around 1.4 mil. DKK and growing
= Uncertain
[Onkel premiered 30 October (Tokyo International Film Festival, Japan) and runs 106 minutes. The film was supported by the Danish Film Institute. All the actors are amateurs cast within a 15 km radius in Southern Jutland to secure that they all spoke the authentic dialect. As research for the film, Petersen lived and worked at the farm in the film for a period of time. Shooting took place in Southern Jutland and in Copenhagen, Denmark. The film won a Best Film prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival. The Danish premiere was held in Tønder in Southern Jutland. The film has sold 17,496 tickets in production country Denmark to date. Petersen and Søndergaard both don't have their next projects announced. 53 IMDb users have given Onkel an 8.1/10 average rating.]
What do you think of Onkel?
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