One who doesn’t care for “addictive” TV shows, but is nonetheless interested in the kind of adult relationship drama whose twists and turns are interesting in and of themselves, will find what they are looking for in Johan Haugerud’s more than two-and-a-half-hour-long film Beware of Children. The film, both written and directed by Haugerud, also differs from the most superficial of relationship slop in that it offers multidimensional and even contradictory viewpoints in its societal parallels.
Beware of Children, which was named the best Nordic film of the year multiple times, is set in a middle-class suburb in Oslo. In the hospital, a 13-year-old schoolboy succumbs to injuries received on the school football field. Could it have been an accident?
Haugerud presents to us a large array of characters, of whom the school principal Liv (Henriette Steenstrup’s nuanced portrayal) rises to the forefront. Firstly, despite her left-wing views, she is dating the boy’s right-wing politician father Per Erik Lundemo, and secondly, she may be protecting one of the key people involved, her teacher brother Anders.
There is much talk – but is guilt really what it is all about?
Timo Malmi