NATIONAL10 [RELIGION (Spotlight Weelky)]

Doubly Delightful

Two Danish films on a dog that speaks and a mysterious healer captivate the audience

By AKSHAY SHARMA

The Royal Danish Embassy and Nepal-Denmark Friendship and Cultural Association screened two Danish movies with English subtitles at the Russian Cultural Centre in Kathmandu on December 18 and 19.

"Hannibal and Jerry" is a baroque comedy that hurtled viewers of all ages into a "magical musical tour" as one viewer, Akhanda Rokha, remembers. All characters break into songs at unexpected moments. The plot provides a lot of action, though everything is played very deadpan.

Danish film festival : Cultural exchange

The film's twists and turns into a hilarious drama regaled the young audience, who jumped on their chairs, and the older people, whose laughter echoed through the walls.

Hannibal is a boy who lives with his mother, father and a grandmother who misinterprets words into comical and cynical manner. Jerry is a dog the parents manage to buy for Hannibal, but Jerry can speak and narrates the whole drama.

Hannibal's neighbour suffers from every disaster as Hannibal tries every new gift from his parents.

Uncle Granddad is a jovial son of a businessman and commercial on-screen television phony -- and also a dog snatcher. Hannibal and Jerry are kidnapped when the latter is discovered speaking the human language.

There are also a male and female cop whose romance adds another hilarious comedy of a brazen kind. The movie has a happy ending when Hannibal and Jerry are rescued from the kidnappers.

"The Magnetist's Fifth Winter" also captivated the audience. Just who is this mysterious stranger, Meisner, who arrives in a northern Swedish town in 1820 where Dr. Selander lives with his blind daughter Maria? Meisner calls himself a magnetist -- an amalgam of hypnotist and healer -- and claims he can cure diseases the towns doctors have laid their hands off.

Dr. Selander ignores the objections of his colleagues and allows Meisner to try to cure Marie. Not only does she regain her sight, but she also falls in love with the charismatic arrival. However, rumours begin to circulate about Meisner`s past -- about fraud and rape.

Psychology takes center stage in the drama with Morten Henriksen`s large-scale narrative. Calmly but surely he delves in to the innermost recesses of his protagonists, where dark secrets and repressed memories dwell.

But it is also a moving love story -- of love between father and daughter, man and woman -- and a story of change and release. The occasional use of expressionist visual effects accentuates the moral conflicts in this subtle drama in which light and shadow, good and evil, are not unequivocal quantities. The film is based on the first novel by the Swedish author Perolov Enquist, published in 1964.

The English subtitles worked -- the audience simply loved the movies.