Exiled in Our Life

"Young Man Falling" directed by Martin de Thurah has been selected for the medium length films section of the 47th International Critics' Week.

"Young Man Falling" is an experimental film with a captivating visual style. The film tells the story of 17-year-old Hue, who is living on the fringe of a true perception of reality. Cars pursue him, while a world full of rules and systems asks for his attention. How can he concentrate on his preparations for his French exam when the stuffed animals in his room begin to interfere? And what about Irene who disturbs with her invitations?

In an interview in Lodown Magazine, editor in chief Sven Fortmann describes de Thurah:

Facts

MARTIN DE THURAH

Born 1974, Denmark. Has a background in visual arts. Graduated in animation direction from the National Film School of Denmark, 2002. Visual effects artist on Danish feature films and director of music videos and short films. His video for Carpark North, Human, won Best Music Video at RESFEST, a Grammy at the Danish Music Awards and a Grand Prix at the Festival International des Art du Clip in Provence. De Thurah won Best New Director award at the CADS Music Vision Awards in London in 2006.

TJU-BANG FILM


Founded 1997 by filmmakers Søren Fauli, Niels Gråbøl, Jacob Thuesen and Per K. Kirkegaard. Originally formed as a creative working collective, the company today produces their own films including fiction and documentaries. From 2005 owned by SF Film, thereby widening the scope towards feature films. Giving priority to creative documentaries, the company has signed acclaimed titles such as Detour to freedom (Sidse Stausholm, Mikala Krogh, 2001), "My Grandad's Murderer" (Søren Fauli, Mikala Krogh, 2004), winner in Paris and Sevilla, and "The Monastery" (Pernille Rose Grønkjær, 2006), recipient of more than a dozen awards, among these the Joris Ivens in Amsterdam. Also selected for IDFA was Phie Ambo's "Mechanical Love" (2007). The company signs its two first feature films with "Moving Up" (Christian Dyekjær, 2008) and "The Gift" (Niels Gråbøl, 2008).

"I clearly remember the circumstances when I met director and all around visual maverick Martin de Thurah for the first time."

"At that time, his career already went bananas. He completed six major music video clips (and won several highly acclaimed awards) in 2005. His phone literally didn't stop ringing after he directed the groundbreaking video for Carpark North’'s single Human, a 3-minute distillation of pure genius that already introduced all the elements of the de Thurah universe to an international audience: complex and often dreamlike scenarios that comfortably sit between reality and fictional vision while bursting with emotional power and unique images. He didn't necessarily reinvent music videos, he just reminded us of the endless possibilities and excitement this medium is still capable to cause when things are done right.

"After working almost non-stop 2005-06 he decided to take a break from the music video business in order to prepare for his first film which he finally shot in Copenhagen's suburbs. The result, Young Man Falling, co-written with Rune Schjøtt, tells a simple story of the complex emotional world of a troubled teenager. Stripping things back to its quintessence while leaving enough room for highly impressive imagery within a duration of 45 minutes only — a format that last made an impact through the short films of Hal Hartley — de Thurah dives deeply into the psyche of Hue, a young man who uncomfortably alienates himself from life due to the stress of taking school-leaving exams, the loss of a family member and this thing called love. And it probably is the most honest film about teenage angst since Mike Mills surprised and impressed us with Thumbsucker two years ago."

And de Thurah comments on "Young Man Falling":

"For this film I chose to work with subjects like the feeling of being in exile in your own life and the space between people."

"These are subjects that have been following me all my life, this kind of situation where you sit in a crowd and try to figure out if you're a part of this world or not. I think it's a concern for many people, especially when you're young and you don’t know anything about the world. And you certainly don't know anything about love, even if love would hit you right in the face. It all connects to this huge insecurity.

"My ambition was to make a good film regardless of marketing aspects. I had to push that aside even though the film market in particular is a very conservative one. For me it was important to step away from making music videos. You know, it was kind of weird, I heard people were surprised about the film being so powerful ... they expected the film to be beautiful and more about form. It felt strange for me because I believed my videos always had a lot of content as well ...

"I tried my best to make it strong on all levels. That might be a strange thing to say for someone who got a reputation through music videos, but I don't like to be spectacular, the focus was always on the story, to tell things in this specific way that you really feel the protagonist's desperation".
(Lodown Magazine, November 2007)

Martin de Thura foto Soeren Solkjaer Starbird