Several of Denmark’s finest actors, including Trine Dyrholm (The Commune) and Nikolaj Lie Kaas (Men & Chicken) star in this incisive, sometimes chilling drama about a school principal whose marriage begins to unravel after he receives a terminal diagnosis.
Peter Schønau Fog (maker of the Festival '06 hit The Art of Crying) returns with his long-awaited second feature, You Disappear. An incisive, sometimes chilling drama about a marriage disrupted by the sudden onset of illness, the fi lm stars several of Denmark's finest actors, including the sensational Trine Dyrholm (The Commune) and Nikolaj Lie Kaas (Men & Chicken and the Department Q series).
A principal at a posh private school, Frederik Halling (Kaas) is happily married and adores his job. During a vacation he begins acting erratically and when he's abruptly hospitalized, the family is confronted with life-changing news: Frederik's odd behaviour may have been caused by a brain tumour. After he returns home, Frederik's employer confronts him with a string of questionable investments that suggest his illness may have been affecting his behaviour for much longer than anyone realized.
In part, You Disappear is a philosophical rumination on cause and effect, the nature of identity, and the mystery of motive. Are Frederik's actions altruistic but reckless (as he claims) or self-serving and devious?
Our understanding of these events is further complicated because our point of view is often that of his wife, Mia (Dyrholm), a potentially unreliable witness who seems more troubled by the scandal and the disruption of her bourgeois lifestyle than by her husband's health.
Like In a Better World or Land of Mine, You Disappear asks large, troubling questions and brings them home in the form of an emotionally devastating, skillfully made domestic drama.
STEVE GRAVESTOCK
Screenings
Scotiabank 7
Scotiabank 1
Bell Lightbox 2
Scotiabank 2