Themes: Fathers and Sons, Down on Their Luck, Immigrant Life
Main Cast: Max von Sydow, Pelle Hvenegaard, Erik Paaske, Bjorn Granath, Axel Ströbye
Release Year: 1988
Country: SE/DK
Run Time: 160 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Long but rewarding, the Danish-Swedish Pelle the Conqueror is based on the early passages of Martin Andersen Nexoe's four-volume novel. Pelle (Pelle Hvengaard) is the son of a 19th-century Swedish farmer (Max Von Sydow). Seeking escape from their poverty-stricken surroundings, father and son emigrate to Denmark. Upon arrival, however, they are treated like indentured servants, leading to a profound ideological turnaround for the impressionable Pelle. In the original novel, Pelle ended up embracing Communism. Nexo's political overtones are soft-pedalled in the film, which concentrates on the close, indestructable relationship between Pelle and his father. Adapted for the screen by Bille August, Pelle the Conqueror won the 1988 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Pelle the Conqueror is that rare instance of a film winning the approval of the oft-times demanding jury at Cannes (where it won the Palm d'Or) and the generally conservative members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who honored it with an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It is, in short, a serious work of art that is also accessible and universal in its appeal. Pelle (Pelle Hvenegaard) and his father, Lasse (Max Von Sydow), are a co-dependent pair. Lasse, an older widower with few employable skills, is forced to work under degrading conditions in his new home on a Denmark farm, and while the young Pelle watches his father's humiliations, he comes to understand his own need to for independence. It's a coming-of-age story with a bitter difference; Pelle must grow up before he even reaches puberty or else he'll be mired in the same meager existence as his Pappa. Writer/director Bille August doesn't rush this story, allowing occasional rays of hope to beckon Lasse and Pelle to a better life. Lasse courts a local woman until her husband, presumably lost at sea, shows up, while Pelle is taken in by the farm owner's kindly wife until she stabs her husband in a jealous rage and decides to care for him instead. The film has the feel of the classic Italian postwar neorealist dramas, honestly presenting the everyday lives of downtrodden people without apology or excuse for their miserable conditions. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
Astrid Villaume - Mrs. Kongstrup; Troels Asmussen - Rud; John Wittig - Schoolteacher; Anna Lise Hirsch Bjerrum - Karna; Sofie Gråbøl - Miss Sine; Lena-Pia Bernhardsson - The Sow; Kristina Tornqvist - Little Anna; Buster Larsen - Ole Koller; Lars Simonsen; Nis Bank-Mikkelsen - The Clergyman; Morten Jorgensen; Karen Wegener - Mrs Olsen
Credit
Gitte Kolvig - Costume Designer, Bille August - Director, Janus Billeskov Jansen - Editor, Stefan Nilsson - Composer (Music Score), Anna Asp - Production Designer, Jörgen Persson - Cinematographer, Jens Arnoldus - Production Manager, Lars Kolvig - Production Manager, Per Holst - Producer, Lars Kolvig - Producer, Bille August - Screenwriter, Martin Andersen Nexo - Book Author
Based upon the famous 1910 novel by Danish writer Martin Andersen Nexø, the film is set in the end of the 19th century. A boat filled with emigrants from Sweden arrives at the Danish island of Bornholm. Among them are Lasse and his son Pelle who have moved to Denmark to find work after the death of Pelle's mother. They find employment at a large farm, but find themselves treated as the lowest form of life. It is only as Pelle starts to speak Danish that he begins to gain in confidence, but is still discriminated against as a foreigner. But neither boy nor father is willing to give up their dream of finding a better life than that which they left in Sweden.
Actors and production
The movie also stars Erik Paaske, Björn Granath and Morten Jørgensen. It was a co-production between companies in Denmark and Sweden, with the screenplay adapted by Bille August, Per Olov Enquist, Janus Billeskov Jansen, Max Lundgren and Bjarne Reuter from the 1910 novel of the same name by Martin Andersen Nexø. This adaptation was directed by August, with a score composed by Stefan Nilsson.
