Druk

What do Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Ernest Hemingway have in common? All three are examples used by Martin, the middle-aged hero of DRUK, to demonstrate the transformative power of alcohol – while also being excuses to get wasted himself. He works as a teacher at a Danish high school, where he has lost his focus over the years and been struggling with his frozen marriage. Rather surprisingly, alcohol becomes his catalyst for a new way of life – albeit only if he manages not to mess up on it. As in most of their films, Vinterberg and his writer Tobias Lindholm look out for another weak spot in bourgeois self-conception, with “everyman’s favorite drug” taking the limelight this time around. Their approach, however, is very Danish: DRUK is not the study of a loner, but rather a bittersweet drama of male friendship, as Martin and his teacher-pals try to control their consumption within a group experiment; they are out to research its social (and marital) effects, from one level of intoxication to the next. For Vinterberg, this is a lighter, more loosely directed film than usual, with a penchant for male debauchery. For Mikkelsen, it’s an especially rewarding part, as he follows a trajectory from tender brokenness to the euphoria of a fantastic dance scene à la Fred Astaire. (Dominik Kamalzadeh)

On 29. October: Coffee and breakfast at 6:30am!

Thomas Vinterberg: SNEBLIND (1990), THE BIGGEST HEROES (1996), THE THIRD LIE (2000), IT’S ALL ABOUT LOVE (2003), DEAR WENDY (2005), A MAN COMES HOME (2007), METALLICA: THE DAY THAT NEVER COMES (2008, K), SUBMARINO (2010), JAGTEN (2012), FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (2015), DIE KOMMUNE (2016), KURSK (2018)