This is "Unga Astrid", a new Danish/Swedish 2018 movie co-written and directed by Pernille Fischer Christensen, one of Denmark's most established filmmakers these days. And it is as much her movie as it is Alba August's. She plays the main character, the young Astrid long before she became a Lindgren. So now you know already who this film is about. Or maybe you don't. Here in Germany, everybody knows the name Astrid Lindgren and some of the books she wrote that were also turned into movies like Pippi Longstocking for example. And that despite she is Swedish, I guess even more people know her there. But I suppose that she is not as famous in the English-speaking world, well UK maybe a bit, but I am pretty sure she is not known at all in America. So perhaps this film can get her in the minds of Americans as well and for that alone it would be good this film was made. Then again, I am not even sure if this was the intention. Because apart from a handul of references about Lindgren stories and characters, this film is really just about a young woman and it could have worked also about a random character and not about the famous Astrid Lindgren. The girl is not a stunner like a classmate who gets asked to dance by all the boys. But there is a certain charm and spirit and dedication to her in everything she does, not just her dancing. And this is how she wins people over. Men too. This of course refers to the man who impregnates her at a very young age. Her very young age, he is twice her age basically and a married man. Vut he won't throw her under the bus like many others would have. He is still crazy after her through all the years and it seems he truly loves her. But her love for him fades eventually fairly quickly, also through her disappointment that she lost contact to her son in the first months thinking said contact will result in the father having go to jail, but all he has to do is pay fine.
So it is eventually just her and her son and this is one of my favorite aspects, well the whole movie is about that, but I am speaking about certain details and scenes, such as the ones when she tells her stories to her son first, or lets say the prototypes of her stories and how she wins him over finally accepting her as his mother before she could win over millions, if not billions of children. A really interesting reference. Other than that, the film is rarely about her talent and passion for writing and this is what I mean with the title of my review. But it is perfectly fine. Minor references about that include the typewriter scenes perhaps and of course when she calls her boss Mr. Lindgren and we know he will be her man one day. Enough information for me for sure. It is really a strong coming-of-age film and character study we have here. The fact that it is about a famous character just adds more and shoudl make people especially curious to check this one out. I am not sure if this could have fared well with the Oscars, but yeah the film was not submitted by either Denmark or Sweden to the Oscars, so we will never know. I think the topic and execution and maybe lack of relevance in America would have resulted in this film running empty. Undeservedly so though. By the way I mentioned Denmark too and yes despite Lindgren being Swedish and her son being Swedish too (there's one key scene about their nationality) a whole lot of the film plays in Denmark because they have to take the boy there so nobody finds out about who the parents are.
Finally, I don't think this is really a film for the very young, those who love Lindgren's books. It is a movie fror grown-ups. Not because there is a really harmless sex scene or because we see August naked on 2 occasions or so because it will be difficult for children to understand the depth and emotion attached to the movie. I am primarily talking about individual scenes here like when the have to tie her breasts after giving birth so the milk stops coming, which was really a sad moment. Or the other scenes when Astrid struggles with her son not accepting her as her mother (Lassemama) and there were plenty. And the suffering for the really likable main character that results from it. Or the scenes about how her family despises her somehow for what she did, but still loves her somehow and the way her mother accepts her near the end again is pretty touching, even if it is never really a mother-daughter relationship film. The mother is played by Trine Dyrholm by the way, an actress that also non-Scandinavian movie buffs should recognize. Also at over 2 hours, it is a very long film and very young audience members may not have the attention span required for that, even if in my opinion the film flew by and felt considerably shorter. By the way with the haircut very young Astrid has early on, she almost looks a bit like Pippi Longstockings herself before she grows older and cuts off the crucial parts of her hair to look a bit more grown-up. The film includes several years in fact and still it is not a biopic of course because the film ends long before Astrid's marriage to Lindgren or her gigantic success as a writer. Huge thumbs up for PFS and August here, they truly made a really good film here. One of my favorite European movies of the year without hesitation. So yeah, big thumbs--up from me and I highly recommend checking it out, especially to those who had more connections with Lindgren's works than I did and even I enjoyed it. Says it all how good this one is.
5 out of 19 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
