Exceptional drama that, without fanfare, won the main Amanda awards in 2019, for best film, direction, screenplay, actor, supporting actor, cinematography, film editing, score and sound. With these credentials (plus the Nordic Film Council award for Best Film of the Year, with the highest cash prize known in all of world cinema), do watch this movie which, unhurriedly and with dramatic solidity, describes the crossing lines of life, alternatives and decision. Released in English-speaking countries as "Beware of Children", do not be fooled: these are not children of the corn, from Brazil, Rosemary's babies, Damiens or any other "alive" infant, but child victims of the world.
With a mobile football gate, in the middle of the playing field of a school in Oslo, which reappears on screen every so often as a leitmotiv, the story of «Children» unfolds for 157 minutes. One morning, during a break between classes, next to this football gate, Lykke, a 13-year-old girl, hits Jamie, a classmate of the same age, with her backpack, knocking him down and causing him to die accidentally. The girl will not get tired of repeating the same version: it was an accident, but nobody believes her. The circumstances are complex: Lykke is the daughter of a Labor Party leader, while Jamie's father is a far-right politician. In addition, the school principal maintains a secret relationship with the "neo-Nazi" politician; and her brother, a teacher, who was in charge of taking care of the children, was not present in the playing field when the events occurred, escorting a young and attractive intern.
Besides Lykke, the politician, the director and her teacher brother, several secondary characters are outlined with few but precise strokes, as an effective example of a contemporary society with great social advances, which debates the prospects of the future, with a central objective: the education of children. Making a film on this subject is not an easy task and making it enjoyable is a more challenging exercise. Director-screenwriter Dag Johan Haugerud deals with the formative ethics of teachers and parents, the debate between "political correctness" and a less rigid education, without neglecting the human side, the conflicts of ideologies and dogmas interfering in the affections and the class rooms, with Lykke always at the center, affected by the evolution of events.
With excellent performances from the entire cast, the two actors that attracted me the most were Ella Overbye as Lykke and Thorbjorn Harr as the right-wing politician. She, on the one hand, plays a lucid, fragile and vulnerable young girl; and while he is effectively terrifying, when the most cruel and authoritarian side of the man wins over the fragility of the hurt father.
