Filipina drama is one Danish delight at Shang film fest

Mercedes Cabral plays a young Filipino mail-order bride sent for by Danish widower Ulrik (Jens Albinus) in Frederikke Aspock’s Rosita. When she arrives in Denmark to a bleak coastal fishing town, she can’t speak any Danish; but she utters her first word after climbing into bed with her would-be sexagenarian husband the first night and clasping his hand to her face: “Fisk.” (Fish.)

Added to her strange new world is the presence of Ulrik’s adult son Johannes (Mikkel Felsgaard), a discontented fisherman who takes an instant liking to her dad’s young new arrival.

Rosita is one of 11 films offered in the 2nd Danish Film Festival at Shangri-La Plaza’s Cineplex from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2. It also marks the 70th anniversary of ties between Denmark and the Philippines; besides the festival, expect art exhibits, music and performances throughout October, and a new edition of Jose Rizal’s Tagalog translation of Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tales (with historical background by Ambeth Ocampo, hopefully launched in part by Ayala Museum this November).

On hand for the Shang launch was Danish Ambassador to the Philippines Jan Top Christensen, Film Development Council chairwoman Mary Liza Diño and actress Cabral, who shared with media the experience of shooting in a cold, faraway country, learning some Danish, and meeting with some of the 11,000 Filipinos who make Denmark their home.

The plight of Filipinas sent around the world to make their economic way is nothing new to local cinema, but in this joint Filipino-Danish film, Rosita’s story is told with admirable understatement and subtle humor, minus the typical kilig factor. One of the Filipinas in this seaside town is a mail-order bride “recruiter” who warns Rosita she’d better have sex with her husband or else “be sent home.” Another shares extra clothes to layer up for the bleak new environment. “Everywhere you go, outside the Philippines, Filipinos just group together and adapt, they look to each other for support,” notes Cabral.

Cabral’s character is the central focus of not only the two male leads, but the whole Danish fishing town, it seems. She added the experience made her “level up” with the Danish actors around her. “Acting-wise, it was really different from here. There’s a formula to local acting, but the acting there, it’s really subtle. You can’t just be an actor without studying it, getting a degree.” She considered it a privilege to work with “really intense actors like (co-star) Mikkel Felsgaard.” The language was also a challenge: “It’s hard to learn Danish in a small period of time, the way it’s written you can’t read it as it is. But they were nice enough to give me an interpreter and help me study how to speak it.”

Rosita opens the fest on Thursday, Sept. 29, Shangri-La Cineplex.

Denmark, of course, is known for its unusual, provocative films and filmmakers: there’s Lars von Trier, of course (Dogtown, Melancholia, Nymphomania), and Nicholas Winding Refn (Drive with Ryan Gosling), but also a thriving detective and thriller TV industry (Emmy-winner Susanne Bier’s The Night Manager for BBC with Tom Hiddleston, The Killing and others). At the film fest, you’ll find murder mysteries, family dramas and lighter fare. Here’s a look at the lineup:

• In Antboy: Revenge of the Red Fury, superhero Antboy finds his world thrown into danger again as a mysterious invisible enemy makes herself known as the Red Fury along with a band of new super villains.

• The Idealist is based on the 1968 nuclear crash in the US Military Air Base at Thule, Greenland. The case was dismissed as an accident, but 18 years later, a local reporter runs into suspicious circumstances that link back to the crash. This political thriller is a gripping film about uncovering the truth behind one of the government’s well-kept secrets. 

• In Silent Heart, award-winning film director Bille August explores the dynamic of a family whose matriarch is diagnosed with a severe illness; she and expresses a desire to end her life and gathers her entire family to celebrate one last weekend together.

• In The Keeper of Lost Causes, chief detective Carl M?rck is assigned to Department Q, the department handling old, terminated cases, and meets his new assistant Assad. Carl’s stubborn nature throws them headfirst into solving the mysterious disappearance of female politician.

• Sex, Drugs & Taxation tells the tale of Simon Spies and Mogens Glistrup’s friendship through the years filled with warmth, humor, defiance and eccentricity: it’s “a joyride through taxation, mass travel, hookers and politics.”

• In The Hour of the Lynx, the priest Helen is approached by scientist Lisbeth to help a young man imprisoned in a high security psychiatric ward after being convicted of murder. The priest and scientist begin a journey deeper into the sick mind of a young man’s soul.

• In With Your Permission, Jan is sent to group therapy by his boss to deal with a crumbling marriage, and forms an unlikely friendship with mechanics Rudy and Alf. Had he and wife Bente known what Rudy and Alf were really up to, they would never have welcomed them into their home.

• In Fear Me Not, Michael signs up for the clinical trial of a new anti-depressant. The trial was stopped as the pills turn out to have serious side effects, but as Michael continues with the experiment, his psychological games become more drastic and his actions even more terrifying.

• When defense attorney Jonas Bechmann is accused of murder in The Candidate, he hunts for the group of blackmailers threatening to expose him as the killer, and finds links to his father’s death under mysterious circumstances.

• Karla’s World shows how 10-year old Karla tries to get her whole family together for Christmas, despite her parents being divorced and her two obnoxious yet inventive younger brothers acting up.

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Tickets for 2nd Danish Film Festival, Sept. 29-Oct. 2, are free with limited seating. For inquiries, call 370-2597 or 98 or visit www.facebook.com/shangrilaplazaofficialfanpage. Visit the Danish Embassy at ww.filippinerne.um.dk. Follow the Shang on Instagram: @shangrilaplazaofficial.