You Are Not Alone

You are not alone is a movie about love. It is easy to watch and I can guarantee that if you have an open mind you will enjoy every minute of it. The action takes place at a Danish boarding school. That is the place where Kim (12 y.o) and Bo (15 y.o) meet for the first time.

I like the romantic which flows from the screen. The whole atmosphere of the movie is very relaxing and the music contributes to that. Some time ago I read that this movie became an icon for generations of young people growing up and after seeing it I can understand why.

You are not alone is sentimental movie which you will enjoy on some quiet night – it can make you a better person.

I would like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed watching this film, although the subtitling on my copy lagged a little nearer the end.

It was a charming view of life at a Danish boarding school where two boys meet for the first time, and their friendship slowly evolves into something more. I wish that more films were like this and, having just finished watching it, I want nothing more than to start it again and watch it over, however I have to go out in 5 minutes, so I shall have to wait for tomorrow.

My only criticism is that the plot seemed to wander and be a little disordered at times. It had some, though fun, unnecessary sub-plots that could, to be honest, have been cut in order to have some more development of the two main characters, who were so well acted by the two boys.

I live every day with all the negativity that surrounds being openly homosexual in High School (I'm 14 and gay) and I can only say that I wish my own peers could be as accepting of me, and others like me as the other boys in this film, however, in our British (and even more in the US) society today, there is still a lot of stigma surrounding homosexuality and I feel that even today, thirty years after this film was originally released, most of the people I know would not be ready to see it, and that is a terrible shame as it is a fantastic film.

This is a great movie, and you will either walk away with a warm fuzzy feeling or you will simply start the move over and watch it again if, unlike me, you have the time.

DU ER IKKE ALENE (You Are Not Alone) is a 1978 Danish landmark film written by Lasse Nielsen and Bent Petersen and directed by Nielsen and Ernst Johansen. When the period during which this film was made, a time when gay theme movies were all but verboten, this little film is a brave, delicate, tender, unpretentious tale of the bonding, both emotional and physical, that occurs between two young boys in a boarding school in Denmark. The story develops slowly and insidiously, a fact that makes some viewers find it boring or slow. But for this viewer the pacing of the story is intricately involved in this tale of the fragile first attractions that occur in young boys: everything is new, and nothing is rushed - it just happens and evolves.

Kim (Peter Bjerg) is a young prepuberal youth living with his parents: his father (Ove Sprogøe) is headmaster of a boys' school and his mother (Elin Reimer) is in line with the father's hard-line standards. Though not a student in the school, Kim does associate with the young high school age boys and finds one lad in particular, Bo (Anders Agensø), a role model who shows concern for Kim and with whom Kim bonds, emotionally and eventually physically. The manner in which this occurs is never acted out but merely suggested in the most discreet and beautiful way. But we watch as this bond develops more strongly, with each of the boys nascent to the situation in which they find themselves.

The classmates are a varied group - normal kids in a normal school situation - until one of the boys Ole (Ole Meyer), who is somewhat of a trouble-maker, posts magazine pictures of nude women in his dorm room. Reprimanded by the headmaster he is put on probation and when he ultimately posts the contraband pictures in the dorm restroom, he is threatened with expulsion. His classmates band together to protect him and Ole is maintained in the school.

Other sidebar stories that pepper the screen are swimming hole escapades where the injury of one of the boys calls forth the empathy of the entire class; there is a vignette where an older woman tries to teach one of the boys the beauties of physical love; there is a shower scene that finds Bo and Kim gently observing each other; and there is a class project for graduation that is supposed to be an enactment of the 10 Commandments, one episode of which is assigned to a student filmmaker.

It is this finished class project film, shown before the faculty and the parents, that is based on the commandment 'Love thy neighbor' and it is a beautifully wrought scene of Bo and Kim embracing and kissing in one of the more honest and sensitive moments on film. The 'non-story' film ends without an audience response: it simply fades away to a tune that speaks of 'You are not alone - there is someone like you ahead.' No, this is not a film about nudity or raw sex. Instead this film is a brave exploration of the normal period in growth when boys search for role models and find their first sensations of love emerging. It is delicate, beautifully filmed and acted, and is one of the early forays into same sex love that works on every level. Grady Harp

Excellent movie, if you have an open mind. The two boy's relationship grows in a very innocent manner. Even if you are heterosexual, you can probably identify with the feeling of your first infatuation for another person and all the little moments together that seemed special. This movie deals with first love, of another kind, in an extremely tasteful manner. My only regret is that, in America, people will not tolerate movies like this one. It makes it very hard to hear of, and also see movies with such an explosive subject. I would recommend it, if you can find it.

This is one of those films that would be impossible to make today and that also shows how different the northern European countries have been with their openness around young kids' sexuality. The film tells a beautiful story of first love between two boys in a boarding school with the actors being the right age for a change, and even when the subject is filmed with the most delicacy and naturalism, it's also not shy in showing full fontal nudity that screams 70s and would be impossible to show today. The film is a landmark in Danish cinema and touches on all kind of important teen and preteen subjects. The only real problem that I see with it is that the structure is very lose and sometimes the main story gets lost between the multiple secondary ones.