Ofelia kommer til byen

The much underrated Danish film actress, Stine Bierlich, is outstanding in Jon Bang Carlsen's finest hour as a feature director (he's made many excellent documentary shorts but never quite mastered the narrative fiction form). Bierlich brings a vibrant mix of vulnerability and sensitivity to her portrait of "Ofelia", here a young prostitute fleeing to a small village in Jutland and getting herself entangled in a local theater production of Hamlet. Jon Bang Carlsen displays acute flair for incorporating the misty, barren landscape of Jutland in the story and great skill at revealing its devastating effect on the mental state of the people who inhabit this Godforsaken place. Slow in tempo and heavy on the use of symbols, film nevertheless manages to make a lasting impression.

One of the best Danish films of the eighties