Kalak

 

Isabella Eklöf: Kalak ( DK 2023). Trying to come terms with his trauma, Jan (Emil Johnsen) resorts to the indigenous face masks of indigenous Greenland.

DIRECTOR: Isabella Eklöf

COUNTRY: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Finland

YEAR: 2023

DURATION: 120 min

LANGUAGES: Danish, Greenlandic, English, subtitled in Finnish

CATEGORY: Gems of New Cinema, Puhuttu tai tekstitetty suomeksi

Viewed at Lapinsuu, Sodankylä, Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), 12 June 2024

Timo Malmi (MSFF 2024): " Kalak, directed by Swedish filmmaker Isabella Eklöf as a Nordic co-production in Greenland, opens with a startling scene: an older man is sexually abusing a sleeping young man. But this is not sensationalist doom and gloom; instead, the effortlessly talented narrator sympathetically follows the adult life of Jan, who flees Copenhagen with his family to Greenland at the turn of the millennium, traumatised by a difficult relationship with his father. "

" As Kalak is based on an autobiographical novel by Kim Leine, who also contributed to the screenplay, even the most intense phases of the film can be expected to have counterparts in reality. Eklöf deals with things with honest frankness, but also with succinct economy: how the smiling Jan is in the grip of manic sexual polygamy fuelled by drug abuse, which his tolerant wife and mother of two (Asta Kamma August) accepts – even though she is not aware of the dark side of his relationship with his father. "

" “Kalak” means “dirty Greenlander,” referring to both the positive and negative aspects of the adaptation process. In the film, relationships with the Indigenous population reflect Danish colonialism. Nadim Carlsen’s camera beautifully captures the barren atmosphere of the island, and Norwegian Emil Johnsen is a real find in the conflicted role of the boyish Jan. " Timo Malmi

AA: Isabella Eklöf has an assured touch with the tough subject-matter of Kalak. 

It is the tragedy of Jan (Emil Johnsen) coming to terms with the legacy of his pedophilic and incestuous father. Now in a terminal phase of cancer, the father Ole (Søren Hellerup) is jovial and unrepentant, celebrating his licentious lifestyle to the end. Jan's family has moved / escaped to Greenland, but in the finale they return to Copenhagen.

The world unfolds in a mode of contemporary realism / naturalism, but the theme dates back to ancient tragedy and Sophocles.

Everybody in Jan's circle suffers collateral damage: his wife, his children, his colleagues at the hospital where he works, the partners in his serial polygamy. Like his father, Jan in his relationships seems to have a void where conscience should exist. At the hospital Jan has access to drugs, and he becomes a reckless addict.

Greenland dogs can be dangerous. Jan's daughter becomes horribly savaged by one. His wife and children fly back to Copenhagen and its surgical experts. When Jan refuses the attentions of Nikoline, an indigenous lover, she commits a family suicide by burning down her house with her child. The traditional Nordic funeral hymn, "Gammal fäbodpsalm från Dalarna", is heard in the funeral sequence. The camera catches it in a distant high angle shot, tilting up along a mountain and further up to heaven.

A half-hidden current in the story is the profound resentment of the indigenous Greenland people towards Danish colonialists.

Kalak is an original tragedy of Vatermord. Isabella Eklöf offers us a potent cocktail, as powerful as the one mixed by Jan for his father in the finale, but with reverse impact. Eklöf wants to wake us up. 

The sublime landscapes of Greenland offer striking counter-images to the darkness of the fabula. According to the end credits they have been shot on photochemical Kodak film. 

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: MY PROGRAM NOTE FOR HELSINKI FILM FESTIVAL 2024:

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: MY PROGRAM NOTE FOR HELSINKI FILM FESTIVAL 2024:

SYNOPSIS IN ENGLISH: Kalak is the story of a clash of cultures in contemporary Greenland. It is also the story of the quest of Jan (Emil Johnsen) trying to make sense of the secret agony of his life. Isabella Eklöf tells her story in breathtaking images leading to a conclusion worthy of ancient tragedies.

PROGRAM NOTE IN ENGLISH Isabella Eklöf has an assured touch in Kalak, based on an autobiographical novel by Kim Leine. She tunes it audaciously between the extreme poles of beauty and darkness. Unique beauty can be found in the atmosphere and landscape of Greenland, caught on photochemical film by Nadim Carlsen. Underneath we feel the ubiquitous resentment of Greenlanders towards Danish colonizers. Darkness enters also via the Danish family of Jan (Emil Johnsen), a nurse who is trying to come to terms with an unhealed secret. Even his wife (Asta Kamma August), puzzled by Jan’s serial polygamy, is clueless. Jan is determined to become a part of the Greenland community by the one way he knows: fucking. When their daughter becomes savaged by a Greenland dog, the family flies back to Copenhagen for surgery. Only Jan stays back, but one of his frustrated lovers sets her home on fire. The most breathtaking shot takes place to the tune of the old funeral hymn from Dalarna. Eklöf tells her story in a sober mode of naturalism, but her theme radiates an atavistic force worthy of the tragedies of Sophocles. We finally meet Jan’s father Ole (Søren Hellerup), the jovial monster himself. Eklöf serves us a cocktail as potent at the one mixed by Jan for his father.

PROGRAM NOTE IN FINNISH: Isabella Eklöfin ote on hallittu Kim Leinen omaelämäkerralliseen romaaniin perustuvassa Kalakissa. Eklöf virittää sen uskalletusti kauneuden ja pimeyden äärimmäiselle jännevälille. Ainutlaatuista kauneutta paljastuu Grönlannin maisemista ja taivaanrannoista, jotka on vanginnut fotokemialliselle filmille Nadim Carlsen. Taustalla voimme vaistota grönlantilaisten vastenmielisyyden tanskalaista siirtomaaherruutta kohtaan. Jan (Emil Johnsen) on sairaanhoitaja, joka on tuonut perheensä Grönlantiin yrittäessään kohdata menneisyytensä pimeän salaisuuden. Edes hänen vaimonsa (Asta Kamma August) ei tiedä, mistä on kysymys, vaikka häntä askarruttaa miehensä huumeaddiktio ja maaninen monisuhteisuus. Jan on näköjään päättänyt integroitua grönlantilaisen yhteisön jäseneksi ainoalla osaamallaan tavalla: panemalla. Kun grönlanninkoira raatelee perheen pikku tyttären, hänet lennätetään Kööpenhaminaan hätäleikkaukseen. Vain Jan jää, mutta yksi hänen turhautuneista rakastetuistaan polttaa itsensä ja lapsensa. Henkeäsalpaavin otos nähdään samalla kun soi vanha virsi Taalainmaan karjamajalta. Eklöf kertoo tarinansa asiallisen naturalismin tyylilajissa, mutta hänen tarinansa hehkuu Sofokleen tragedioiden ikiaikaista voimaa. Viimein kohtaamme Olen (Søren Hellerup), joviaalin hirviöisän itsensä. Eklöf tarjoilee meille yhtä väkevän cocktailin kuin se, jonka Jan sekoittaa isälleen.

TAGLINE IN FINNISH: Isabella Eklöfin kuvallisesti huikea Kalak kertoo Janista (Emil Johnsen) joka yrittäessään selvittää elämänsä pimeätä salaisuutta tuo perheensä Grönlantiin. Siitä kasvaa draama kulttuurien yhteentörmäyksestä, jonka loppuratkaisussa on antiikin tragedioiden jylhää voimaa.