It's impossible to resist the temptation of love. Everybody wants to be loved and admired, and everybody craves physical fulfillment. The question of the latter comes down to consent. What if your profession is to defend victims of domestic and sexual abuse and your personal life is filled with tragic experiences you want to overcome and choices which make you a villain? What if you use your expertise and education to avoid punishment for your own crime? Why there's rarely something like altruistic heroism and those admired often commit the same crimes as common criminals? Can you escape a vicious circle of dependence and what can be the consequences of one brief love affair? Dronningen.
We love the stories of rich and successful people who created something for all of us to enjoy. People who came up with something outside of the box, from a company of inhibition and established rules spread the wings of independence, excite us. They had the guts to do something many only dream about or are forced to when all else fails, often with mixed results. For some security is more important than following the dream of being one's own boss. For others, family and children, become a bigger priority than their own dreams of success. Others yet, have to fight for their lives and establish the closest relations to be able to start the career of their dreams. Why losing someone means appreciating them twice as much? Where do you get an inspiration and why talent is seen from the youngest years? And why one hundred years ago the life of Astrid Lindgren, the famous children author, an unmarried woman with a child was a tough nut to bite? Becoming Astrid. The greatest stories are often created from the greatest pain.
Marriage. It makes people climb the peaks of the highest mountains and falls into the traps of the deepest swamps. What if the butterflies in your stomach turned into bitter irritation and annoyance with your life partner? What if sex was no longer satisfying and, as a matter of fact, it was utterly non-existent? What if at the sheer thought of spending one more year in your marriage, you were struck with dizziness, nausea and a desperate need to set yourself free? What if the only solution to saving money on divorce trials was to avoid divorce at all cost and resort to more practical methods of getting rid of your spouse? Maybe hiring a hitman is at the end of the day not such a bad choice? Small Town Killers.
Let's talk about climate change. Let's talk about me. I eat beef, which contributes significantly to the air pollution as cows need a lot of plants to eat and, as a result, they produce gases which go to the atmosphere. I'm neither vegan nor vegetarian, which means I kill animals for the pure pleasure of consuming meat. Of course, I don't kill them personally. I pay big corporations to receive nicely portioned and clean pieces of meat which I prepare at home in the form of chops. I even come from a town which is one of the biggest producers of meat throughout my country. I could stop eating beef, shifting from beef to fish or chicken, with a hope that in 20 years time I will not be consumed by cancer, stroke or suffer from a heart attack. I don't drive as I don't have a driving license. Consequently, I use the public transport. I sometimes walk. I live in places heated by coal, so I contribute to the rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. I also waste a lot of plastic bags and produce far too much rubbish. I consume what is available, without growing anything of my own. I even buy books which I read once and probably leave them on the shelf, forgetting that they are the reason for a lot of trees being cut. I'm guilty.
I am guilty of what you are guilty. So let's talk about you. Can you do anything to stop our climate from changing, the icebergs from melting, the coral reefs from dying? Can you think of a way you can leave your planet a little bit better for next generations? Can you use the examples of Sweden and Denmark to shift from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy? Can you switch from your means of transport and be more eco-friendly? Can you be less cynical about the issue as we know you cannot save the world but you can save at least one person, one garden, one tree?
Let's talk about climate change. Let's talk about us. Can we do something for our world, as I believe that you, me and Leonardo DiCaprio walk on the same planet each day, every day? Can we do something in time Before the Flood?
When marriage and traditional family life start to weigh over your shoulders, you seek other lifestyle possibilities. A big house might become the location for free love, a celebration of social life, the alternative ways of spending days. People always look for second options if available solutions do not meet their expectations. But if you make a choice of leading one life over the other, of willingly choosing to be free and let others be free, you have to deal with all the consequences. Can you, then, allow for all that follows the commune life? Can you deal with rejection, jealousy, and loss?
The majority of us are in various shapes and sizes. There's really no need to try to fit in your friends' clothes, as there are many body types and their type might not be your type at all. Modeling and fashion dominated our lives to the extent that finding another top model occupies TV entertainment, fitting into size 0 interchanges with being accepted as a plus size exhibition to make you fashionable regardless of the food you consume. Fashion brands started to cooperate with chain stores to make glamor available to the masses. Who is right in this overall propaganda of beauty? Is it really that important to be physically attractive and well-dressed? Are the lives of models and cover girls so coveted once the eye of the camera is shut off? Is it a dream come true for a girl who desires fame and admiration and is willing to do everything to achieve her dream? And are the small worlds of Paris, Milan, and New York really that important? With a twist, The Model.
Aren't you irritated by those who believe that humans can be put into a box of ordered, traditional and politically correct? Who consider otherness a deviation and whose views don't reach further than their own little, fenced garden of friends and acquaintances?
Would you ask a limbless child why he wasn't born normal? Would you blame a child from the orphanage for being abandoned by his parents? Would you stigmatize a divorced woman for the years of being beaten by the husband, or mentally abused, who then found the strength to put an end to the nightmare? In the process of leaving the Dark Ages of our mindset, would you discriminate a man who considered himself a woman? The Danish Girl. Every epoch has its martyrs.
The word of a child against the word of an adult. The stand of a parent against the stand of a professional. Can a man once suspected of a cruel crime against an innocent child regain the trust of a small community of citizens? What makes us more reliable in court? Is it our family situation, professional experience, morals? Why not having children makes us perceived by the society as less trustworthy and why do we still think that children are innocent, honest and good? When the crimes of pedophiles see the light of day, the crimes of children should also be exposed as many youngsters destroyed the mental and professional lives of their teachers. Sometimes your job can be a course and a small group of friends might turn to a group of very close enemies. Hunt.
There is something about Scandinavian countries that creates a perfect setting for the most gruesome criminal stories. Prosperity and the lack of worry about your everyday life made the Viking progeny susceptible to secrets, cruelty, mystery, and madness. It is one of those stories. A pair of unlikely heroes and an unsolved crime from years before. And what is special about these films, is that they are nothing like the American-dream stories we're so used to watching all the time. This time the floor is for Denmark.
History provides so many interesting stories, such intense relationships fill the blank pages of our past that the modern seems to be bland in comparison. A story of a woman deprived of love and desire. A film about a ruler who wasn't capable of sense, sensibility, and sensitivity. A man who came at the right moment to save both of them. And as history is tricky, can you look for a happy ending? Maybe you can find a happy ending for your present situation: toxic relationships, unhappy loves, abusive relations at work. There's a way out from every hell. Appreciate contemporary times. Create your own royal affair.