Mirakel (Miracle)

A Danish coming of age film about two friends, Dennis and Mick, who are in love with the same girl. Dennis´mother is still in grief after Dennis late father, and is not much of support, meaning that Dennis must take care of himself and has no grown up to talk to about his problems. One day an angel appears, could it be Dennis´father? If Dennis wants to, he can get a pair of angel wings and magic powers to change things around him to the better. But he must promise not to swear. (If you recognise the story, you have probably watched ”Gabriel and me” , 2001, it´s almost the same plot).

* Country: Denmark

* Release: 2000

* Director: Natasha Arty

* Actors: Stefan Pagels Andersen (Dennis), Sebastian Jessen (Mick)

* Awards: Buster´s grand prix, Buster International Children’s Film Festival, AGIS Gold medal+Bronze Gryphon, Giffoni Film Festival, Award of the city of Zlin+Children´s Jury main prize, Zlín International Film Festival for Children and Youth.

This review would not have been possible without the valuable support of CVMC. I would like to thank them for supporting my blog by providing the DVD of  “Mirakel” .

Check out lots of other coming of age films at cvmc.net, the oldest movie rental service on the internet – since 1998. Specializing in hard to find & rare films from around the world!

         

Photo: ****(very good)

Acting: ****(very good)

Story: ***(good)

Soundtrack: **(below average)

Total: ****(very good)

Anton

This is a Danish film from 1996 with the talented Jacob Oliver Krarup, 11 at the time and casted after several months of searching for the perfect boy. The director then found him almost on his doorstep, showing that the best things are sometimes already around us. In the DVD there´s a bonus documentary about the making of the film, where we meet the director Aage Rais-Nordentoft and Jacob once again, now in his twenties (2006). It´s fun to hear Jacob´s own story of how it felt to be casted and then about all the difficulties of participating in a film as a rather sensitive 11-year-old boy, doing this for the first time.

   

The film is about Anton, a fatherless boy, whose mother has telled him that his father died during a plane crash, working as a pilot in the military. Accordingly, Anton´s life circles around aeroplanes and he´s building his own plane in a garage near his home. We´ll also meet some of his friends and when he gets his first kiss from the girl nextdoor.

  

This is a rather sad film, about a sad boy with big dreams. It´s the director´s first film and as such I think he´s doing great. He has later in 2003 made another film with Jacob as the main character, the film ”Kick´n Rush” or ”2 ryk og 1 aflevering” in Danish, here with Jacob as a teenage boy.

As a bonus feature in ”Anton” you´ll also get a nice short commentary section from 1996 with the children themselves about making the film.