Himlen Falder (2009) - True-crime abuse drama has qualities - and flaws

♥♥♥

 

Star Mille Lehfeldt looks hatefully at something on this gloomy poster for Manyar I. Parwani's Himlen Falder

Sara is a young woman who lives in the shadows of her past, when she learns that her much hated biological mother is dead. She seeks out her brother and father, who don't recognize her, and she suspects that her father is abusing his two new daughters.

 

Himlen Falder is written and directed by Manyar I. Parwani (Ibrahim (2007)). The original Danish title translates to 'heaven falls'.

The film is 'inspired by the Tønder case', one of Denmark's worst sexual abuse cases ever, the DVD cover informs, and yet the plot is adequately removed from the actual case so that it would probably have been better if the inspirational true-crime connection had gone unmentioned. Perhaps Parwani at some point realized that he could not adapt the grueling case, which is so grim and horrific that most would bow out, and instead he has created this compromise. Lukas Moodyson's Lilya 4-Ever (2002) is one of the few films that portrays something that comes close to the horrors of the Tønder case.

Himlen Falder is not poor, and it brings its audience forcefully down into the despair and powerlessness that abuse victims can find themselves in. The assaults are mostly left in the past, and it is instead the long-term harm of such transgressions that the film examines. It has excellent photography (by Lars Reinholdt (Hundeliv (2016)) and Martin Top Jacobsen (Sjit Happens (2016-17))) and good performances from Mille Lehfeldt (Player (2013)), Dick Kaysøe (The Christmas Party/Julefrokosten (2009)) and especially Marcus Christensen (Se Dagens Lys (2003, TV movie)) as the brother Danni, who has become a neo-Nazi due to his anger. The father (Kaysøe) is shown as a human being rather than a monster, which is provocative, - and which also strikes one as a creative decision that is too far removed from the dark realities of the actual case.

 

 

Watch a teaser for the film here

 

Cost: Estimated 9 mil. DKK, approximately 1.31 mil. $

Box office: 63k $

= Box office disaster (returned 0.04 times its cost)

[Himlen Falder was released 20 January (Denmark) and runs 100 minutes. Shooting took place in Fåborg, Fyn, Denmark. The film opened #11 in Denmark, its only general release market, where it only attracted 7k audiences. The film was nominated for 3 Robert awards, Denmark's Oscar. Parwani has not returned to the medium since; for the last few years he has been in a legal conflict with a prominent Danish author concerning a documentary about her that he has shot. Lehfeldt returned in Nothing's All Bad/Smukke Mennesker (2010). 246 IMDb users have given the film a 5.3/10 rating.]

 

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