Solkongen

Director Thomas Villum Jensen and writer Anders Thomas Jensen are at last teamed up again for the first time since their Oscar-nominated short feature "Ernst and the Light". Where Anders Thomas Jensen has had the greater artistic success of the two, writing and directing "Flickering Lights", "The Green Butchers" and "Adam's Apples" and writing several other acclaimed pictures, Villum Jensen has focused on his work as an actor, occasionally directing mainstream family entertainment such as "Love at First Hiccough" and "My Sister's Children". "Solkongen" was shot in Svendborg, Denmark, a town on the south side of Funen, and although no-one in the film speaks with the proper accent, the milieu is actually very well captured. The characters are all very believable, even the more stereotyped comic-reliefs like Niels Olsen and Thomas Bo Larsen. That being said, the story is a classic comedy with the structure of a fairytale, only a very strange one. A middle-aged, wealthy widow in need of an introvert young losers affection - this may sound like a "Sunset Boulevard"-theme, but the misanthropy is gone, the Sunset Boulevard is an empire of Solariums, and the conclusion is as unusual as it is completely compelling due to the chemistry between Lie Kaas and Neumann.