De grønne slagtere (The Green Butchers) (2003)

At first glance, this movie is full of mad characters. A brain-damaged guy overcaring for animals so much that he kills almost all of his family in a car incident on a trip to a zoo just to save a life of a deer. Afterwards his brother starts to hunt animals and collect their skeletons at his home until he's forced to become a butcher to tame his insane hobby. Then a priest who ate his own wife. And a few other personages with similar deviations...

Nice people aren't they? After a friend of the ex-hunter starts to kill people in order to spice up meat products at their butcher shop, the plot seems to go way far from sanity and common sense. You may begin wondering what the point of the film actually is?

Don't be mistaken here. A popular today (esp. in modern Asian cinema) genre of trash-horror doesn't apply to this movie at all. Neither do bare 'drama' or 'comedy' as specified at IMDb, in my opinion. I'd call it a black Scandinavian comedy. Maybe even a black ironic Scandinavian comedy.

So what's the irony, anyway? As I see it, the message is simple: there's not a single sane person in this world. Everyone is crazy in one way or another. To a smaller or larger degree. And this movie, being an act of art, simply utilizes hyperbole to present the idea.

How could one live in such a crazy society? Watch the movie to see how it resolves. In a nutshell, we just have to put up with the fact and accept people as they are. We should remember that we ourselves can look insane in other people's eyes. And that's OK.

To my surprise, both brothers mentioned above have been played by the same actor - Nikolaj Lie Kaas. I didn't even realize that until I watched the movie and took a look at the film credits. Wonderful performance, in my opinion.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342492/
My vote: 7 of 10

Blodsbånd (Mirush) (2007)

 The movie tells a dramatic story about two people searching for a brighter future in a foreign country. There's a lot in common between the two: the same blood, the same genes. And as such, they're both similarly cruel toward their family when/after they leave.

However, there's differences as well. Mirush moves to Norway and wants to start a new life. He believes that Bekim, his father, remembers him, thinks about him all the time, and is going to help his son. Basically, Mirush expects to be literally fed by his father. Or, at least he wants to turn the situation into that state. After all he's just 15 which sort of explains this.

On the contrary, Bekim relocated to Norway long time ago. He had to start his life completely anew and forget his roots all together because otherwise he wouldn't be able to stand all the difficulties that obviously arise when a foreigner comes to another country illegally. He wouldn't be able to reach the level of independence and prosperity that he managed to acquire. And afterwards he had to protect this level further integrating into the society of his new home country.

Soon Mirush's naive hopes shatter on the severe reality. However, his extreme cruelty in the final episodes of the movie exceeds all reasonable expectations. The question remains: is that in his blood, or emotions were just running wild? The title of the movie (which is literally translated from Norwegian as "Blood Ties") suggests the former...


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0899216/
My rating: 7 of 10