
Movie aficionados will be somewhat interested to know that Gustav Möller is a name worth remembering as he accomplished quite a lot in his debut feature “The Guilty” which was highlighted at Sundance and was later on adapted for English-speaking audiences featuring Jake Gyllenhaal. The film fittingly featured a single location an emergency call center where a dedicated policeman tries to save a distressed caller whose problem was a bit more complex than it sounded. A remarkable case of limitation fostering imagination, “The Guilty” essentially told its viewers to imagine the gory action sequences in their own heads without allowing them to look at anyone else but the anxious expression of one actor for most of the film.
Möller’s new movie, “Sons”, however, he has used a slightly different approach but mostly narrates from behind the camera. She is Danish corrections officer Eva Hansen, the main character of the movie played by Sidse Babett Knudsen, the actress known from the Borgen TV series. She might look like half of the average male prisoner at her ward, but obviously can defend herself, hunching her shoulders and lifting her voice when needed.
We begin with the interesting sections of the film, and in them, before the action of the narrative unfolds, Möller deliberately depicts Eva establishing a closer connection with her charges not in order to fit in as a woman in a men’s prison, but because of her compassion. Her desire to teach and control the anger of the inmates might be published in hopes of future developments: it has been later revealed in the narrative that effectively her only child, a 19-year-old son, died in custody. Such ironic twists create interesting characters in the film: ‘I am something of a disappointment for Simon (this amount of history can only be offered heavily to a viewer’s imagination). It’s now Eva who tries to rescue what she sees as sloppy motherhood but needs change for some other Mum’s boy.’
However, rather the contrary, “Sons” isn’t an honorable account of a conscientious prison officer. If Eva appears more sympathetic than one would imagine considering her position, it is worth understanding that her benevolence has its bounds. Just a few moments into the film, there are other newly came convicts and Eva tries to compose herself when she spots a hostile figure among them tall, heavily tattooed, and possessing the vacant stare of an indifferent outcast: It was Mikkel Iversen (Sebastian Bull), the boy who shot her child. From the moment Eva sees this Mikkel image, she starts the transformation of an innocent mother into a suicide bomber. The entire movie focuses on how the rest of the people understand her suffering and change their thought processes.
This is the moment when Eva anticipates returning to the larger world and going back to work. She now knows everybody is looking for her, she explains to the governor why she has torn the parents off from her children: lack of compassion, excessively busy parents for criminalistic purposes, something extremely cold that one cannot resist. Yes, she never said sorry and meant it her eyes lit up with excitement. To replace calm with Mikkel for killing one more person is a repulsion, oh, it is even more so. Losing control over oneself is a weakness, and orientation towards no immediately actionable goals is more than just a flaw. I do not want to get myself into something malicious. Rami (Dar Salim), the procedure commander in charge of the control center, does not set out to insult Eva and firmly asserts that her life is still “quite a fairytale.”
Möller is preoccupied with the burning question he wishes all of us to entertain. Does Eva plan to seek revenge or redemption on this killer who has just come to the scene? Cameras are everywhere in the prison, which limits the things she can do. But for the purpose of making Mikkel’s life hell, such options are in plenty. She can spit in his food or even prevent him from using the bathroom. But if he everyday remembers on what she did to him and reacts, then she can just throw him in the quiet room or strip his visitation rights something she tries to do after she discovers Mikkel’s mother (Marina Bouras) as one of the people listed as the next visitors.
“Sons” may be the title of the movie but it is the stories of these two mothers who enhance the theme the most as both of them have felt failure and frustration in losing the boys they brought up and yet, to be transformed by them. Mikkel however, denied Eva the opportunity to either comfort her son or attempt to change him. As the cameras are being set up, Eva is trembling with rage and continues to wait outside the room. She becomes more aggressive with this sense of injustice. But how much of this aggressive behavior the audience should expect from her? For the loyal viewers of Borgen, Knudsen’s acting shows another dimension of the protagonist which is very much volatile as the actor’s deliverance is marked with fury and penitence at times.
While shooting the film in the shut-down Danish prison, Vridsløselille, DP Jasper J. Spanning observes Eva and the inmates in the same way as documentary filmmakers would while they are working and when no one else is in the vicinity. This aspect of the film helps in providing a false sense of privacy in otherwise very cold and hostile environment in the film. But it also makes her antics of Eva seemingly unfathomable: She is indeed a mole, a fugitive she even steals drugs from an evidence locker and plants them into Mikkel’s cell. These are all common sense questions in a normal world: does no one in the family of the said criminal know what horrible things happened to him, and why his superiors would all cover for him? Are there no vetting procedures for Danish prison staff? And are there some real sanctions for near-fatal assaults on convicts? In “Sons”, the pertinent issue instead is: Where does it all end?
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