Director: Anna Sofie Hartmann
Starring – Lisa Loven Kongsli
Norwegian star Lisa Loven Kongsli plays Dara, who is working on an oral history project in the Danish island of Lolland, where a new tunnel connecting Denmark to Germany is being built. Currently, she lives in Berlin but her homeland is Denmark. For her project, she has to visit the southern part of her homeland. Many houses will be demolished to accommodate the development. Dara meets with many locals to know about their feelings. Most of the locals are unhappy to move into a new location. She meets at least one couple who are content with the compulsory purchase.
She explores a deserted house and finds the diary of a librarian named Agnes. The interactions with the locals reveal conflicting attitudes to the draw of place and the meaning of home. Dara meets with a Polish man named Lucek and starts a brief romantic relationship with him. Dara has a boyfriend in Berlin. The film explores a different facet of human emotions. The locals have to move into their new homes and they are not happy leaving their old homes. In the case of Dara and the Polish guy, their case is different. Dara is staying at a place which is much different than the one where she was brought up in the same country. Also, it is much different than her current home in Berlin.
In that new place, she needed a partner to keep her motivated. Same is for her partner Polish guy who had to leave his home for work. However, unlike the locals, it is not clear if they are happy or sad living there. Anna Sofie Hartmann shows a lot of promise in her debut feature Giraffe. “Giraffe” makes no explicit judgement on what we call progress. “It’s sad that it will be covered in asphalt and turned into a highway,” Leif Nielson tells Dara, speaking of his family farm. “So that is sad – but that’s progress, you can’t stop it.”
debarshithecinemaniac 