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When Sofie pauses in the dim hallway of her first home‑care appointment—coat collar turned up against a chill she barely feels—the camera lingers on her uncertain grip of the doorframe. Home Sweet Home (2025), written and directed by Frelle Petersen, places us in rural Southern Jutland just as a new single mother, Sofie (Jette Søndergaard), takes her first hesitant steps into a profession that demands both precision and compassion. Her ten‑year‑old daughter, Clara (Mimi Bræmer Dueholm), waits at home for a mother who is already half‑gone.

Petersen’s film unfolds through long, observational takes that treat domestic interiors as stages for emotional shifts. Sofie’s world, at once orderly and fragile, is defined by the modest buildings she enters and exits—each visit a micro‑drama in itself. These early scenes establish the tight rhythm of her routine: through door clicks and careful medical checks,...

Home Sweet Home”, a Danish drama, follows a home carer juggling her personal and professional responsibilities. The film takes a close look at her monotonous life as she visits her old clients and attends to their needs. Frelle Petersen, who has written and directed this film, has previously covered the themes of old age and loss in “Uncle” (2019) and “Forever” (2022). His new film embodies a distinctly cold, harsh look, which often defines medical dramas. Still, he offers a surprisingly tender outlook on the film’s heavy dramatic themes.

Jette Søndergaard leads this film as Sophie, a divorced mother with a 10-year-old kid, who works as a professional carer. She offers home visits to her old clients, who suffer from things that often come with old age, whether it’s memory loss, health conditions, or loneliness. Sophie intently listens to them, cleans after them, and feeds them. Unlike her peers, she...

The 75th edition of the Berlinale begins today and tomorrow, on Valentine’s day, is the world premiere to Frelle Petersen‘s Home Sweet Home (Hjem Kære Hjem) – a Panorama programme selection. Coming after his 2022 sophomore feature Forever – a competition film at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, Petersen’s latest feature is about Sofie, a single mother, is starting in a new job as home care worker she needs to balance the demanding job among the local communities’ citizens, and the everyday life with her daughter, Clara. This is a third-time out with actress Jette Søndergaard. Here is the exclusive trailer:

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The Berlin Film Festival has named the first dozen titles for its 2025 Panorama lineup, Berlin’s main sidebar, and there are a few familiar faces in the mix.

Berlinale regular Ira Sachs will return with Peter Hujar’s Day, starring Ben Wishaw and Rebecca Hall, a feature based on a 1974 conversation between photographer Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz, offering insight into the New York art scene. Canadian filmmaker and fellow Berlinale alum Denis Côté is back in Panorama with Paul, a documentary on a cleaner who uses his job cleaning homes and sharing his routines on social media to help combat depression and social anxiety.

Other Panorama titles announced Tuesday include Emilie Blichfeldt’s Danish horror feature Den stygge stesøsteren (The Ugly Stepsister), a dark twisted fairy tale, which will premiere in Sundance; Frelle Petersen’s Hjem kaere hjem, a social realist drama on the life of an elder...

Michel Gondry and Ira Sachs are among the headline filmmakers set to debut new feature works within the sidebar competitions at next year’s Berlin Film Festival.

The German festival announced the pair this afternoon as part of its first crop of confirmed titles.

Gondry will screen Maya, Give Me a Title in Berlin’s Generation sidebar. The festival’s website describes the film as Gondry’s “stop-motion love letter to his daughter Maya brings to life a poetic and amusing journey that invites you to dream and laugh.”

Also set for the Generation competition is Our Wildest Days (I Agries Meres Mas) by Greek filmmaker Vasilis Kekatos who is best known for his 2019 short film The Distance Between Us and the Sky, which won the Short Film Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. He also created the popular Greek series Milky Way.

Related:...

The Belin Film Festival has unveiled its Panorama lineup, including new works by Denis Côté, Ira Sachs, Michel Gondry and Shatara Michelle Ford, among others.

Sachs’ movie, “Peter Hujar’s Day,” stars Ben Wishaw and Rebecca Hall. Set for an international premiere in Berlin, the film portrays a 1974 conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz, set against the backdrop of the New York art scene of the time.

Côté’s film, “Paul,” is a documentary about a man struggling with depression and social anxiety who found refuge in serving women who invite him to clean their homes.

Gondry’s “Maya, Give Me a Title” is described by the festival as a “stop-motion love letter to his daughter Maya brings to life a poetic and amusing journey that invites you to dream and laugh.” It features the voice of “The Count of Monte-Cristo” star Pierre Niney.

Ford’s “Dreams in Nightmares,...

TrustNordisk will handle international sales for Danish writer/director Frelle Petersen’s new drama Home Sweet Home.

The film is now in post and will have a works-in-progress presentation at Haugesund’s New Nordic Films market next week.

The story follows Sofie, a single mother who starts a new job as a home-care worker and needs to balance this demanding role among the local communities’ citizens and her everyday life with daughter Clara.

Jette Søndergaard, who also acted in the director’s previous two features Uncle and Forever, plays the lead role. The other cast members include Ole Sørensen, Lasse Lorenzen,...

A close-knit Danish family struggles with loss in Forever, Frelle Petersen’s drama that debuted at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Shortlisted by Denmark as its submission for the International Feature Oscar (Holy Spider was ultimately selected as the entry), it’s a quiet, thoughtful charmer that observes its characters with affection and respect.

Jette Søndergaard puts in a dignified performance as Line (translated as Lily in the English subtitles), happily married but stressed about trying for a baby via IVF. She and her husband spend a lot of time with her mother Maren (Mette Munk Plum) and Egon (Ole Sørenson), who runs a coffee shop with Line’s brother. A kind and likable presence, the brother dies suddenly, and his loss is felt deeply throughout the family, but demonstrated differently by each character.

While Egon talks about his feelings and takes himself off to his greenhouse for chats with his dead son,...

Most Scandinavian films have a recognisable style that cannot be confused with any other. This style harmonises with the stereotypical image of a man from the North – melancholic, silent, gloomy and austere, just like the Scandinavian landscape itself. While at first glance it might seem Frelle Petersen's Forever is just another typical Scandinavian solid drama, it is also a deconstruction of “Scandinavianness” as well as an image of contemporary civilization's communication deficiencies – tested by a family tragedy.

Line (Jette Søndergaard) and Henrik (Eskil Tonnesen) are trying to conceive a child following the doctor's instructions. Line’s parents, Maren (Mette Munk Plum) and Egon (Ole Sørensen), hope to become grandparents soon. In turn, Line’s brother, Andreas (Tue Frisk Petersen), experiments with new-wave craft varieties of coffee and plans an adrenaline-filled trip. Very slowly, almost sleepily, Petersen portrays the semblance of a family idyll. The sterility of these pretty pictures does not.

The film is currently in post-production, with a release in Denmark this July.

TrustNordisk has boarded international sales for Danish writer/director Frelle Petersen’s new feature Forever.

The drama is about a family thrown into a crisis after losing one of their own. The film, which is now in post-production, shot in the rural communities of Southern Jutland, the southernmost corner of Denmark.

TrustNordisk has footage to show buyers at the EFM. Nordisk will release in Denmark on July 7.

The cast features Jette Søndergaard (who also starred in the director’s 2019 feature Uncle[/link]), Mette Munk Plum (A Fortunate Man...

The Danish director’s sophomore feature revolves around a couple who lead a quiet existence in their yellow brick house, until an unbearable tragedy changes their lives forever. South Jutland-born director Frelle Petersen is now preparing his second endeavour, a family drama entitled For Life. His debut feature, Uncle, was nominated for the 2020 Nordic Council Film Prize and won the Grand Prix at the 2019 Tokyo Film Festival. The news was first reported by nordiskfilmogtvfond.com. The story of For Life is set in the helmer’s native small town of Tønder, Southern Jutland, and focuses on a couple, Maren and Egon, who lead a quiet existence in their yellow brick house and enjoy their daily activities with their two adult children, until an unbearable tragedy changes their lives forever.The main cast members are Jette Søndergaard (Uncle), Mette Munk Plum (Happy Ending), Ole Sørensen (Norskov), Lasse Lorenzen, Eskil Tonnesen (Equinox), Ole Caspersen.