Five Danish films in the main competitions at Göteborg Film Festival

Apolonia, Apolonia

Lea Glob, 2022

When Danish filmmaker Lea Glob first portrayed Apolonia Sokol in 2009, she appeared to be leading a storybook life. The talented Apolonia was born in an underground theater group in Paris and grew up in an artists’ community—the ultimate bohemian existence. In her 20s, she studied at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, one of the most prestigious art academies in Europe.

The Cake Dynasty

Christian Lollike, 2023

Middle-aged factory boss Niels is at a breaking point when his family-run cake factory is on the verge of bankruptcy. To save the business, he’s forced into producing low-calorie sweets and hiring refugees to work in the factory. Will these seismic changes cause him to fall apart, or to open his heart in new ways? The Cake Dynasty is a warm-hearted love story and a political satire.

Camino

Birgitte Stærmose, 2023

Copenhagen Does Not Exist

Martin Skovbjerg, 2023

A young woman has disappeared without a trace. Three months later her boyfriend agrees to an unusual arrangement: to be locked in an apartment and interrogated by the woman’s father.
It soon becomes obvious that even long before her disappearance, the two lovers had chosen a strange and unconventional life: cut off from the world, isolated in the middle of the big city.

Empire

Frederikke Aspöck, 2023

St. Croix, the Danish West Indies, the year is 1848. Anna Heegaard and Petrine are close friends.

Godland

Hlynur Pálmason, 2022

In the late 19th century, a young Danish priest travels to a remote part of Iceland to build a church and photograph its people. But the deeper he goes into the unforgiving landscape, the more he strays from his purpose, the mission and morality.

The Great Silence

Katrine Brocks, 2023

29-year-old Alma lives a quiet life in a Catholic convent in present day Denmark and is preparing to take her perpetual vows as a nun, when her brother Erik arrives unexpectedly after many years apart. Erik, a recovering alcoholic, wants his share of the inheritance from their late father. However, his presence quickly unearths a much deeper deceit between them – a terrible accident from their past, that Alma has desperately tried to suppress.

The Kiss

Bille August, 2023

Anton Abildgaard is a noble and conscientious young man whose top priority is to complete his training as a cavalry officer in the most honourable way possible. During a training session he orders his platoon to help Baron von Løvenskjold whose car has got stuck in the mud and finds himself invited to a ball at the castle. At the ball he meets the Baron’s beautiful daughter Edith who has been in an accident and ended up in a wheelchair.

Unruly

Malou Reymann, 2023

MAREN, a strongminded young woman, is seen by authorities to be promiscuous and is therefore sent to the women’s institution in the small island of Sprogø. Here she is to learn how to behave as a proper young woman. She has to share a room with SØRINE who has already internalised the story about herself and has learned to behave properly.