As It Is in Heaven (2004)

Kay Pollak, the Director and one of the authors, is A Course In Miracles student and it shows in this movie at several key moments including messages about love, minds joining, union, miracles, Christ vision, judgment, humility, the illusion of fear, forgiveness and the Holy Instant. Anders Nyberg, one of the writes and also a Course student, was the model for the lead character in the movie, who is a choir conductor. Highly recommend for Course Students and any other spiritual seekers that like seeing love wide open with no earthly barriers containing it all. God does not forgive, because e has never condemned.

The Swedish film, As it is in Heaven, directed by Kay Pollak is beautifully written and extremely touching. The main character of the film is Daniel Daréus, a troubled yet very talented composer. Daniel is introduced in the film as being highly successful in his adult life with flashbacks of his traumatic childhood. He decides to move back to his hometown after his heart attack to a small town in Sweden. The towns people do not know that this was his hometown because his agent changed his name when he was 15 years old. The audience is quickly introduced to Lana, a character that is hard not to love. Her positive attitude is quickly transferred to Daniel who up until meeting her seemed very dark and troubled. After he meets Lana, Daniel gets a job as a cantor at the church. Many different characters are introduced that all hold significance in the storyline. Once Daniel enters the church it is safe to say that everything changes and many peoples lives improve, except for a few jealous men that end up being trying to steal everyone's joy. This film has a little bit of everything; it incorporates religion, death, abuse, bullying, love, and disabilities all while keeping a very realistic and relatable storyline. Pollak is able to evoke a feeling of tension in the film through his close-up camera angles while also incorporating the themes of outsiders and guardian angels. The first few minutes of the film the audience is introduced to Daniel in a field, as he is getting bullied by his classmates and repetitively beaten. The camera does close-up shots of the boy's stomach and his face as he is lying on the ground in pain. This scene also includes close-ups of adult Daniel as he is composing a song at one of his famous venues. During the close-up shots of adult Daniel you see his sweat dripping off his hair and body, as well as the blood that is pouring out of his nose. This is clearly offsetting and along with his rapid arm movements they all combine to create an uncomfortable tension to start off the film. This is a common cinematic technique that is often used in Nordic film to help exemplify the characters emotions. Other examples throughout the film include when Lana and Daniel are intimate together and the camera is only focused on their faces as if we are right on top of them as they kiss. Also when Gabriella, the abused choir member decides she will sing the solo song Daniel wrote for her you could see it in her tired eyes how hopeful she was for the future. I believe that Pollak included these close-ups to enhance our understanding of each of the characters. The scenes could have lost much of their meaning if the camera was at a different angle. Another common Nordic theme in films that Pollak also included in this film was the incorporation of outsiders. The obvious outsider in this film would be Daniel as he is world famous and Interrupt the little town and must deal with those who do not want him there. For example the pastor who gets very jealous of Daniel and begins to feel like he is taking attention away from the church. Near the end the audience is exposed to a breakdown that the pastor has towards Daniel when he states, "I used to mean something here" regarding his church and his mourning of his failed marriage. Another outsider in this film is Thore, a mentally disabled boy who loves being around happy crowds. In the beginning he is on the outside just listening to the choir and then decides he wants to be a part of it. The great part about this choir was the acceptance of outsiders and the understanding that everyone has their flaws. Lastly a theme that I often noticed throughout the film, As it is in Heaven, was the idea of guardian angels. Although this concept was not brought up until about half way through the film, as I reflect I believe that angels hold a lot of meaning to the film. Lana claims that she see's angels on people's shoulders and that you just have to look hard to see them. I believe that Lana and the choir were Daniels guardian angels. They transformed him from someone who was unable to love and did not let him be mistreated by the pastor or Connie. On the other hand you could say that Daniel was the guardian angel that many of the characters needed. Such as the pastors wife, when she needed refuge from her crippling marriage she sought out Daniel. Daniel was also there to try to help Gabriella gain a voice in her abusive marriage in which he helped the only way he knew how, to write a solo song for her to sing at a concert. I believe that it sounded like angels singing through the vent as the last scene was shot and Daniel was most likely going to die. He claimed that he had a dream to create music that opens people's hearts, and he certainly accomplished that while also opening his own heart.Overall this was my favorite Nordic film I have watched thus far. I thought that the acting was excellent and I could relate to many of the characters. Through the themes of the outsider and angels while also using close-ups I thought that this film was very special and I would recommend it to anyone looking to watch a great film.

As it is in Heaven is like a melancholy Little Miss Sunshine for Swedes. Quirky and heartwarming, this film follows a small town with a big heart, as its residents find their individual voices and learn to live together in harmony. The story unfolds when world-renowned conductor, Daniel Dareús—who is exhausted by his high-stress career—returns to his childhood village and discovers how a small-town community can heal an aching heart. Daniel becomes the church choir director and his passion for music soon inspires the townspeople to confront the intense emotions they have repressed for years. And as these singers embrace their unique tones, Daniel too has to find how he fits into the chorus. Addressing issues of physical and emotional abuse, sexual subjugation, and the human tendency towards passivity, director Kay Pollak investigates in this internationally acclaimed film what it really means to be a community. It is clear from the get-go that Daniel is exceptional. The opening scene is of him as a young boy, playing the violin in a golden field. As his bow strikes the strings, however, we see that his musical talent earns him nothing more than some nasty bruises and a reputation as a wimp. Daniel leaves his hometown and its bullies, and eventually establishes himself in the world of music as a hugely successful conductor. But when he suffers a severe heart attack that puts an abrupt end to his remarkable career, Daniel decides to return to very place that had nearly squelched his dreams as a boy. Played by the superb Michael Nygvist, Daniel is a captivating mixture of bewildered, awkward, mysterious and compassionate. When he meets the vivacious, outspoken young woman named Lena (Frida Hallgren), who seems his exact opposite, his lingering stare and clumsy smile captivate her attention as well. While Daniel navigates his new position as Vespor, Lena helps him to connect with the people, reminding him when he is frustrated by interruptions during rehearsal that "coffee is important too." While Daniel becomes more and more engaged with the choir, the minister, Stig (Niklas Falk), feels increasingly ostracized by his congregation. Through Stig's character, Pollak brings up questions about the command of organized religion over people's lives. For example, despite his wife's assurance that sexual desire is natural, Stig condemns it as a sinful act. His wife, Inger (Ingela Olsso), therefore, has had to suffer a life of sexual subjugation. As the choir evolves, Inger finds a sense of freedom and happiness form it that she have in her marriage, which leads Stig to criticize Daniel for using unconventional methods. Realizing that her husband is using religion to oppress her and the rest of the choir, Inger shouts, "there is no sin!" She denounces him, and thus the Christian Church, for trapping Christians in a perpetual state of guilt by "handing out sin with one hand and offering redemption with the other."Gabriella (Helen Sjöholm), like Inger, finds her voice through the enlivened choir. Married to an abusive husband, Gabriella has endured years of feeling afraid and helpless. Daniel writes a song entitled "Gabriella's Song" to sing at the concert: a dangerous act, seeing as her husband disapproves of her doing anything independent. When the moment arrives, her performance is stunning; she appears empowered and full of life for the first time in the film. The song itself tells Gabriella's story, as the solo line embraces her courageous spirit, and the chorus part, like the members of the choir, supports her in her journey. Transformed, Gabriella finally leaves her husband and the townspeople cease to be passive bystanders to her husband's crimes. As they open up to one another, the choir becomes its own congregation and the music their way of worship. However, though Daniel appears to be the minister of their spiritual community, he himself has yet to find his own voice. Lena challenges him to release his inhibitions and be vulnerable—something that his position as a world celebrity never allowed him to do. His timidity juxtaposed with Lena's boldness makes for a charming romance: yet another way in which one can learn to trust their voice and, ultimately, strengthen the voice of the community. Because As it is in Heaven is, after all, a love story: a story of how loving others makes someplace home.

Kay Pollack's sometimes annoyingly uplifting moralistic film, "As It Is in Heaven", shows the story of a man returning to his hometown marked by his own sad memories of his childhood. Daniel Darius, played by Michael Nyqvist, is an extremely successful and gifted conductor, composer, and musician but is forced to question his career after a serious health scare. Daniel moves back to his hometown and is coerced into listening to a local choir, despite his protests. He eventually concedes to directing and teaching the choir once he discovers an interest in one of the choir members. The influence of religion is heavy and rather obvious in this film. The choir is a church choir that sings religious songs, both in Swedish and English. There are moralistic themes in the storyline such as: believing in oneself, finding ones voice, going on despite the odds, etc. The fact that the main character, Daniel Darius, is shown to have risen from oppression into excellence and to have overcome odds propels him to some sort of Christ figure. If Pollack had intended to make any subtle comparisons or similarities to religion, he failed miserably. In a bit of an interesting contrast, Pollack also highlights violence, specifically violence perpetuated by men who are supposed leaders of their church or family. Conny, played by Per Morberg, is Daniel's childhood bully who has stayed in their hometown and married a woman whom he controls in almost every aspect beats his wife and Daniel when he is displeased. Also, the pastor, Stig played by Niklas Falk, turns to violent actions against his wife Inger, played by Ingela Olsson when she displays questionable actions in his view. It is difficult to understand why Pollack included this violence alongside the more moralistic and holy religious themes especially given the fact that the pastor is involved in this violence. So it almost seems as if Pollack is supporting spirituality and religion but not the hierarchical nature and old rules of the church. Stemming from this strange side by side comparison of religion and violence, the idea of hypocrisy is shown through the entire film. Going back to Stig, the pastor, it is revealed to the viewer that he hides pornographic magazines in his house for his own sexual pleasure, and his wife knows of this but doesn't acknowledge it until a key point in their relationship. So while he claims to be this holy man, he is just as weak to sexual pleasures as any regular person, and instead of acknowledging this, he chooses to hide it and make himself a hypocrite. Towards the beginning of the film, it is shown how Daniel lives and breathes his music, which is the love of his life. Once he moves to his hometown, he initially refuses to help a choir who only wants to live and breathe their own music. It seems that Daniel understood what a hypocritical stance this was and decided to help the choir (it also helped that a beautiful woman was a member in the choir, but I'd rather give Daniel a bit more credit than that). Now as to why I am only giving this film a five out of ten. I do not enjoy films that hit a viewer over the head with the intended theme or moral of the story. This is purely personal preference when it comes down to it, but I'd rather have a very open film that has many interpretations than a very closed one with a very intended result. It may be more approachable to more viewers because of how easy the meaning of the story is to grasp, but I'd like to think that I am not a normal, ignorant film-goer. This just wasn't a sophisticated plot that made me think. Nonetheless, Michael Nyqvist did a wonderful acting as Daniel Darius and his wide range of emotions, but even a good actor cannot save a movie like this one. "As It Is in Heaven" most definitely had an agenda in its storyline, not that that is generally a bad thing, but how Pollack went about doing it made it too redundant for my taste. Although there were some interesting contrasts between religion, violence and hypocrisy, it did not feel as though those contrasts were as developed as they could be to make this film more thought provoking and profound. The film was most definitely intended to be uplifting and "warm fuzzy"-inducing, but rather I felt more annoyed than anything after the film ended.