In a Better World

Director: Susanne Bier
Screenwriters: Anders Thomas Jensen

Institute History

  • 2011 Sundance Film Festival

Description

–i-Susanne Bier’s award-winning films have screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2003 and 2005. We are delighted to welcome her back as a World Cinema Dramatic Competition juror and to screen her new film,-/i- In a Better World.
Anton lives in two cultures. He works as a doctor at an African refugee camp, where he witnesses the tragedy and brutality inflicted by a warlord, and lives in a small Danish town, where he and his wife, from whom he is separated, raise two sons. Ten-year-old Elias, who is mercilessly bullied, becomes friends with a new classmate, Christian, who defends Elias but also enjoys revenge. Anton’s two worlds collide when he is challenged by his own advocacy of responsibility, compassion, and nonviolence in his encounters with damaged souls.
Bier creates a timely and universal film of extraordinary power and suspense. In an exploration of masculinity and the perpetuation of violence, she imposes difficult moral dilemmas on an idealistic individual, offering no easy answers.

— Kim Yutani

Screening Details

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