Ild og jord

I have to write this, since this movie has been misjudged by established movie critics. True, there are no classical movie star performances and the director only made this one film. What makes it stand out, seen from our day is the honest presentation of truthful country life and drama in the fifties in Denmark. I know, since I grew up in that decade in the countryside. Filmproduction then were more or less broad comedies or overexposed dramas, as the acclaimed 'Ordet' where Preben Lerdorff-Rye had a more melodramatic version of that same role, admittedly this being a well executed movie from Carl Th. Dreyer. I came across this film by chance and chose to see it because of the contemporary view of the rural landscape of my childhood, and I was pleasantly surprised by noticing, that the drama was delivered in such a trustworthy fashion, contradictory to what you were usually offered in Danish films from that time. A most recommendable picture in every respect.