15 Danish films to IDFA

Democrats

Camilla Nielsson, 2014

Over the course of more than three years director Camilla Nielsson has been up close in the inner circles of politics in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. With the process of creating Zimbabwe's new constitution as the film's narrative backbone, DEMOCRATS tells the unique story of the political elite in Zimbabwe fighting the battle over the founding principles defining the country's possible future.

Something Better to Come

Hanna Polak, 2014

Ten-year-old Yula has but one dream - to escape the largest garbage dump in Europe and lead a normal life. For 14 years, Oscar-nominated director Hanna Polak follows Yula as she grows up in the forbidden territory of Svalka, the largest garbage dump in Europe, 13 miles from the Kremlin in Putin's Russia. 'Something better to come' is Yula's story and is a dramatic cinema vérité story about coming of age, and maturing to the point of taking destiny into one's own hands.

Warriors from the North

Søren Steen Jespersen, Nasib Farah, 2014

Abukar, a Somali, lives a life at the very bottom of the Danish society. His son, Mohammed, has joined al-Shabaab in Somalia, perhaps to avoid a life like his father's. Abukar now fears that Mohammed will be the next suicide bomber to carry out his mission, a fear that seems very reasonable, as two out of the seven Danish-Somali men recruited together with Mohammed have already become "martyrs".

The Look of Silence

Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014

Through Joshua Oppenheimer's footage of perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discovers how their son was murdered, as well as the identities of the killers. The documentary focuses on the youngest son, an optometrist named Adi, who decides to break the suffocating spell of submission and terror by doing something unimaginable in a society where the murderers remain in power: he confronts the men who killed his brother and, while testing their eyesight, asks them to accept responsibility for their actions. This unprecedented film initiates and bears witness to the collapse of fifty years of silence.

The Arms Drop

Andreas Koefoed, 2014

British arms dealer Peter Bleach is on a mission to find the agent who lied in court as Bleach faced a possible death sentence in India. On his word, Bleach was convicted for dropping four tons of weapons over West Bengal to start a civil war. Bleach was indeed part of the weapons drop - but as an informer for MI5 trying to setup the mastermind behind it, the Dane Niels Holck, who was also on board.

The Circus Dynasty

Anders Riis-Hansen, 2014

Benny Berdino, the owner of one of Europe's biggest circus, has a dream. To make sure that his dynasty will continue to thrive, he hopes that his grandson, Patrick, and the award-winning circus artist Merrylu will marry and one day run Circus Arena. With their looks and skills they would be the perfect match.

Songs for Alexis

Elvira Lind, 2014

A timeless love story about two American teenagers and their struggle to find both love and an individual identity in a grown-up world. Ryan is 18 and a very talented musician. Four years ago he came out as a transgender person and began the difficult transformation from girl to boy.

Mission Rape - A Tool of War

Annette Mari Olsen, Katia Forbert Petersen, 2014

Despite increasingly refined war technology, mass rape is used as a tool of war in modern combat. Some 25,000 to 40,000 women were victims of mass rape during the Balkan war 1992-1995. Twenty years after these crimes, only very few cases of war crimes of sexual violence have been investigated and prosecuted.

Good Things Await

Phie Ambo, 2014

Niels is one of the last idealistic farmers in the agricultural country of Denmark. He makes some of the world's finest products, praised by the consumers, prized by the world's best restaurant, NOMA in Copenhagen, and nursed in harmony with the universe. But Niels' ways of farming in accordance with the planets and the primal instincts of the animals are not too popular with the authorities.

The Newsroom - Off the Record

Mikala Krogh, 2014

The world of printed media is threatened by the financial crisis as circulation figures are falling and the media corporations' economies are faltering. The Danish media is marked by the crisis as well - and also Ekstra Bladet is going through the worst crisis in the newspaper's hundred years of publishing. The readers have gone online and are failing the printed newspaper.

The Fencing Champion

Simon Lereng Wilmont, 2014

Ruben (10) is one of the best fencers in the club. He has won nearly every title in Denmark, so this season he has to face some of the toughest and most talented fencers in Europe. A lot is a stake for Ruben and he has to find the strength within himself to overcome his anxiety and control his temper if he is to win the big european championship.

Malek Means Angel

Lea Hjort Mathiesen, 2014

With the smile of an angel and the will of a warrior, Malek is far from an average 11-year-old girl. Striving to one day become a professional fencer, she spends every day training alongside her best friend Yassmine in a working class neighbourhood in Tunis. Malek and Yassmine are training intensively to take the top medals in an upcoming fencing competition.