Truly Human (2001)

Walter and Charlotte live with their 7 years old daughter Lisa in a Danish town. There is nothing unique about them. They are two small time Yupies in their 30's, leading lives which resemble the lives of many people of their social class, and probably the lives of many of the spectators. Both of them are hard working people, they have a few good, loyal friends, they own a small apartment and they are not happy. At the same time Lisa, their daughter, imagines to have an older brother, living behind the wall paper. The question raised at this point by director Ake Sandgren is, what would happen if this imaginary figure, made up by the innocent fantasy of a child, would become a real human being. When this happens one day, the imaginary brother begins a long and painful learning process. He will find out, that the gap between the expectations of a child (the one that made him up, in this case) and the realities of the adults is huge. He'll find out that the values preached by adults are there to mislead him and cover up their own true intentions. And he will have to find out, that people don't refer to what he really is, but rather use him for their purposes and perceive him as what they want him to be. With an excellent script that reminds of Lars von Trier (whose production company, Zentropa, produced the movie) and a great piece of acting by Nicolaj Lie Kaas (the imaginary figure), Peter Mygind (Walter) and Susan Olsen (Charlotte), Ake Sandgren challenges the spectator with the question, weather or not it is possible to live in modern society and remain a human being. A masterpiece of film art, which pulls the best out of the Dogme 95 principles.

what a horrible way to torture your self, don't try to watch this movie, it sucks - BIG time! this is the worst 1½ hour of my life spent. this movie is grose in the pornografic way, it is boring, and after the 1st 15 minutes you know the end. Don't ever watch it, you will be sad you did.gave it a vote of 1 out of 10 only because minus 100 wasn't a possibility

Walther and Charlotte are a not-so-happily married couple with a daughter named Lisa, and would have had an older son if they hadn't chosen to abort him. Lisa imagines that her brother lives inside the wall of their apartment. As this Dogme95 film opens, the building that they live in is about to be torn down, and when it is torn down, we see someone crawl out of the rubble. He thinks he is Walther and Charlotte's son and he appears to be in his early 20's, but he doesn't know his own name or have any idea about even the most simple aspects of daily life. How this simple man interacts with the not-so-simple world is reminiscent of Chauncey Gardner in "Being There," while the strange aspects of his origins makes it feel just a little like "The Sixth Sense."This fantasy aspect makes this an unusual Dogme95 film, and would seem to break rule #8 (genre movies). It seems likely to me that rule #2 (sound) was also broken at times, and I'm not sure about #5 (optical work and filters). As far as the acting, which is normally what makes or breaks a Dogme95 film, the parents and other "normal" people were fairly good, while the main character was a bit weak. If you're a fan of Dogme95 films or if the description sounds intriguing, this film is definitely worth seeing. Seen at the San Francisco International Film Festival on 5/1/2002.

"Et rigtigt menneske" means "a real human-being". This movie is about ordinary people, their life, happiness and misery.It's about a couple (Peter Mygind and Susan Olsen) who's much to occupied by their work to take care of their little daughter, Sara. Sara, however, has a invisible friend, P. Under mystical circumstances, P comes to life as a "real human being", but has no idea how it is living in the year 2001.There's a lot of laughs throughout the movie, but beside that it's also a story about a man who just wants to live as a normal person.Since the movie is under the dogme-rules (hand-held camera, no sound-post-production etc.), it has nothing but what every movie really should have: a great story and some brilliant acting.The characters are all absolutely perfect, the dialog is amazing and the story are really something.One of the best pictures this year. Go see it; you wont regret it.10/10