«Astrid», the quest for freedom

Cinema Wednesdays - Jonas Follonier

Have you ever wondered who's behind the writing of children's stories? Fifi Brindacier, Zozo the Tornado or The Lionheart Brothers? Astrid Lindgren was an extraordinary Swede, and the biopic currently on your screens makes us cry and laugh with her.

At sixteen, in 1920, Astrid was already dreaming. Turning the harshness of her peasant and religious milieu into a joke, the young woman cultivated the art of telling stories to her brothers and sisters. Her storytelling skills earn her a position as secretary at a local newspaper. Alone in an office with the editor, she soon falls in love with her boss and, one fine morning, finds herself a (very) young mother. And distraught.

Fortunately for her, Astrid is resourceful. Faced with her parents’ anger and shame, and with the father of her child—who is in the process of divorcing his wife—she takes matters into her own hands to find a way to give birth in a place where she won’t have to reveal the father’s name, and she’ll do everything she can to reunite with her child as soon as possible, having entrusted the child to a wet nurse. The resulting scenes that make up the film are intensely realistic and breathtakingly beautiful.

Beyond the life of this woman, which is reflected in her famous characters, Astrid, demonstrates and exploits the strong link between boredom and creativity. Anger and action too. Rage and freedom. It's an authentic, fine film about freedom, the freedom of a human being who happens to be a woman, with all that that adds to her courage for the time, of course, but it remains a work about the human quest for freedom, without a moralizing feminist message. And that's good.

Relying on the artistic sensibility of director Pernille Fischer Christensen, composer Nicklas Schmidt (I’ll talk more about him another time), and cinematographer Erik Molberg Hansen, Astrid is a drama from start to finish, a shock from start to finish, a work of art from start to finish, a successful film from start to finish. Even the children's choir at the end is not ridiculous. That's quite a feat, considering how accustomed our species has become to cinematic marshmallow!

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Photo credit: © DCM Films