Truly Human (2002)

Synopsis: Filmed in the Dogme 95 style, TRULY HUMAN from Danish director Ake Sandgren is a fantasy film that defies and challenges our accepted understanding of existential laws. We know, for instance, that... Filmed in the Dogme 95 style, TRULY HUMAN from Danish director Ake Sandgren is a fantasy film that defies and challenges our accepted understanding of existential laws. We know, for instance, that children sometimes create imaginary friends who are simply made up, not real, and not really there--definitely not human. But in TRULY HUMAN, a 6-year-old girl, Lisa (Clara Nepper Winther), not only talks to her imaginary big brother, P, who she says lives behind the wallpaper, but P can see out. Lisa is alive, filmed in vivid color. P, who may or may not be alive, strains to see Lisa in blurry black and white. Even more shocking than realizing that P can see--and is watching--is when she gives him life, and tells him to be a real human being. When Lisa's house is demolished, P surfaces from the rubble, a living man in his late teens, with behavior that falls somewhere between a feral child and an alien visitor. The only thing P (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), who calls himself Ahmed, knows of the world are Lisa's parents, Walter (Peter Mygind) and Charlotte (Susan A. Olsen). Struggling to find his way, P undergoes a rapid introduction to Danish society that is comic, abusive, and above all, very strange. This film was included in the 31st New Directors/New Films 2002 series presented by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Department of Film and Media of The Museum of Modern Art in New York City. [More]

Starring: Nicolaj Lie Kaas, Peter Mygind, Susan Olsen, Line Kruse

Starring: Nicolaj Lie Kaas, Peter Mygind, Susan Olsen, Line Kruse, Klaus Bondam, Clara Nepper Winther

Director: Ake Sandgren

Director: Ake Sandgren
Screenwriter: Ake Sandgren
Producer: Ib Tardini

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