Q&A with Nils Malmros

This absolutely wondrous autobiographical film about the life of pre-teen children travels back to 1950 to depict the elite high school Nils Malmros attended. In a series of episodes and anecdotes of amazing subtlety and clarity, Malmros describes with dead-on accuracy the dynamics at play in the relationships and behavior of boys and girls on the cusp of adolescence. A tender, compassionate film of looks and smiles, mischief, troubling glimpses, and schoolchildren’s merciless politics of popularity (understood here as having a sexual dimension). Made over the course of two years so that the cast of nonprofessional actors would grow up on screen, it’s among the most moving and delightful films about childhood ever made.

Read more about the films of Nils Malmros over at Film Comment.