Troubled Water

Troubled Water (the Norwegian title means something like ‘the invisible ones’) is the third part of a series that started with Schpaaa and the film Hawaii Oslo screened in the VPRO Tiger Awards Competition. With this film, that is even more intense, inevitable and cleverly constructed, Poppe shows himself to be a film maker who can look major themes on crime and punishment straight in the eye. This impressive film will not leave anyone unmoved and at its première at the American Film Festival in The Hamptons it won the main prize as well as the audience award.
Poppe creates a nerve wracking psychological drama in which we see how two characters try to come to terms with the past.
Jan Thomas has just been released from prison, where he served eight years for murdering a child. He finds a job as an organist in the church, where he becomes involved in a relationship with the pastor Anna. She is the single mother of Jens, an eight-year-old boy who has a stunning likeness to the boy whom Jan Thomas is supposed to have killed eight years ago. The chance of making up with a loving father role is jeopardised when Jan Thomas is recognised by the mother of the victim. Then Poppe shows the viewpoint of the mother still dogged by grief (a fantastic Dyrholm), who has now adopted two girls with her husband. She starts stalking Jan Thomas. (GT)