Jens Arnoldus

The story of August who loses his beloved sister Christina, a former porn star known as The Princess. He adopts Christina's five-year-old daughter Mia. Weighed down by grief and guilt, August breaks down and with Mia in tow, he embarks on a mission of vengeance to erase Christina's pornographic legacy.

Based on director Lotte Svendsen's own memories of her childhood on the Baltic island of Bornholm, but though it is set in 1981 the conflicts portrayed do not seem far away. At the start of the film Lars Erik and his wife Sonja are doing well on the Baltic island of Bornholm. Lars Erik is a successful fisherman, Sonja is a traditional housewife, proud of their new house bulging with consumer goods. Their love for each other is the sturdy footing on which their home is founded. Lars Erik employs three men on his trawler, and spends as fast as he earns, so when fishing quotas are cut he faces a crisis. One by one his men leave the boat, but he refuses to give up. Being a fisherman is like being a farmer - you depend on the wealth of mother nature herself. However, mother nature is like romance, highly capricious!

Emma (Line Kruse) is an eleven year-old only child from a wealthy Danish family. Emma's parents seem more interested in their own interests than in her. One evening when Emma overhears her mother talking about how tragic it must be to have your child kidnapped, Emma decides to stage her own kidnapping. She soon meets Malthe, a kind-hearted, child-like, naïve sewer cleaner who literally stumbles on to her. She convinces Malthe that she is a Russian princess whose family is being chased by Bolsheviks, so Malthe lets Emma stay with him in his very modest abode. After being "kidnapped" for a few days, Emma decides to return home. But, just as she is about to return, she overhears a couple of servants talking about how her parents don't seem to be very upset over her dilemma....

19世紀のデンマークの小島を舞台に、スウェーデンからの移民親子の可酷な体験と少年の成長を描く。製作はペア・ホルスト、マーティン・アナセン・ネクセの原作『勝利者ペレ』の〈幼年時代〉を基に、監督・脚本は本作品が日本公開第一作になるビレ・アウグスト、撮影は「マイライフ・アズ・ア・ドッグ」のヨルゲン・ペルソン、音楽はステファン・ニルソンが担当。出演はマックス・フォン・シドー、ペレ・ヴェネゴーほか。88年カンヌ映画祭グランプリ、89年アカデミー賞外国語映画賞受賞作。