Danish director
Niels Arden Oplev
helmed and co-scripted (with
Steen Bille
) the
gritty
,
revisionist coming-of-age tale
We Shall Overcome
- the story of a young boy's crusade against
tyrannical oppression
, and the thematic and temporal intersection of his experiences with the
American Civil Rights movement
. Original audio, English subtitles.
The story opens in the
Danish countryside of 1969
, when
Peder Johansen (Jens Jorn Spottag)
, the father of 13-year-old
Frits (Janus Dissing Rathke)
experiences a
psychotic breakdown
and
is
promptly dragged off
to a mental hospital.
Frits spends the following summer watching the
international news reports of the U.S. Civil Rights crusades
. Those impressions stay in Frits's memory and
inspire him
that next fall, when he enrolls as a student at a boarding school ruled with an iron fist by the sadistic, oppressive headmaster
Lindum-Svendsen (Bent Mejding)
.
When the latter catches Frits spying on a pretty female classmate in the girls' locker room, and
punishes him
by ripping off half of one ear, it not only infuriates and humiliates Frits, but ignites the fire of indignation in his parents. The Johansens hire an attorney and take legal proceedings against Lindum-Svendsen. During the following weeks, they realize that nothing is beneath the sociopathic headmaster; his activities include withdrawing Frits from classes and manipulating the court trial by having Peder proven mentally incompetent. But nothing can stop
The Johansens' fight for justice
.
