Uncle/Onkel (2019) - Warm, special Southern Jutland visit with great amateur actor performances

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Low-Budget Movie of the Year

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

Watch the trailer for the film here

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?

Honeyland (2019, documentary) - Captivating, demanding observed life

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Hero of the Year: Hatidze + Best Nature Documentary of the Year 

The main character of Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov's Honeyland works with the bees in a striking light on this captivating poster for the film

Hatidze is a bee hunter in the rough, mountainous Macedonian countryside, caring for her old mother and working with a respectful 'take half, leave half' philosophy, as a nomadic family becomes her new neighbors and disrupts the precarious natural balance.

Honeyland is an observed life documentary by debuting Tamara Kotevska (Free Hugs (2015, short)) and Ljubomir Stefanov.
Hatidze is a remarkable and strong person to follow: Her teeth and nose are a mess; she is past her prime as a marriage item, and she knows it. Still there is something beautiful about her, which no doubt stems from her exuding spirit and intelligent humanity. SPOILER Her caring for her invalid mother is touching and funny, but the story sees her lose the only family she has left, just as the new neighbors' exploitative efforts at bee-farming breaks her own little honey factory. But in the face of death, wintry cold, loneliness and financial ruin, Hatidze perseveres, keeps moving, engages with nature and thinks ahead to the coming spring.
Before this end, the neighboring family's interaction, two workhorse-like adults and their big litter of kids, are also a sight to behold; shouting, screaming, running, falling, fighting and doing what they can to keep the skins on their noses, it is hard to blame them much for the consequences of their failed farming attempts and rummaging Hatidze's surroundings; and the film doesn't vilify them. But it shows how different attitudes to making use of nature has different consequences, whether the involved parts are big or small, rich or, as in this case, all poor. - We share the same land, and consequences don't respect our borders.
Paradoxically, big, expensive nature documentaries free of people, - and usually with faster editing, - are often more readily relatable for modern city audiences as myself than a sojourn with people such as the ones we meet in Honeyland, simply because their everyday lives are so different from those of us watching them in cinemas, (a cultural luxury which they have likely never tried.)
It is therefore a demanding but captivating trip to a kind of life most will not have known of prior to Honeyland.

Related post:

Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2019 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 660k $ and counting
= Uncertain
[Honeyland premiered 28 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 87 minutes. The project was started in 2016. Shooting took place in North Macedonia, including Skopje. The filmmakers have bought Hatidze a 10k € house with electricity, an oven and a refrigerator, nearer the city, as well as clothes for the nomadic family's children; and they have launched a campaign for the sale of local honey. The film opened #40 to a 31k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it is right now peaking at #36, and has peaked previously theater-wise on 56 screens, grossing 650k $ there to date. It won 3 prizes at Sundance, - and is likely to become a Best Documentary Oscar contender. The film has screened at numerous festivals and is set to continue opening in new markets into 2020. Kotevska has since made two shorts; House on a Rocky Road (2019) and Paw Law (2019), and is announced to helm a drama entitled Man vs. Flock. Stefanov does not have an announced next project yet. Honeyland is certified fresh at 99 % with an 8.35/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Honeyland?