dir. Soren Kragh -Jakobsen
year. 2013
country: Denmark
run-time. 93
rating. 15
In Danish with English subtitles
Full: £6 / Conc :Pay what you can
Doors: 7.00 / Film :7.30
A young man, Drengen violently murders an elderly couple before failing to set fire to himself. Two years later, Helen, who is a priest, is approached by psychiatrist Lisbeth with a desperate plea for help. Drengen is now a patient in a high-security psychiatric ward and wants to commit suicide because it’s part of God’s plan.
Having been part of an experiment attempting to humanize inmates by assigning them pets, the young man has suddenly gone ballistic. Fearing that he will attempt suicide again, priest and psychiatrist must now confront their mutual animosities while trying to grasp the truth. In a race against time the two women begin a shocking journey deeper and deeper into the sick mind of a young man’s soul. As Helen reaches out to the patient, she begins to understand just what the scene of his crime meant to him and the meaning of the pet. Most importantly though she begins to realise the importance of The Hour of the Lynx
Can Helen talk him out of the suicide thoughts and unravel the past that made him the fractured man he is?
THE HOUR OF THE LYNX is not so much a mystery as a character study, piecing together Drengen’s life through conversations in his cell and flashbacks to his childhood. Certainly, despite the strong performances elsewhere, it’s Johansen who steals the film, managing to be both disturbing and yet touching.
“The Hour of the Lynx is the type of movie that reminds me why Nordic Noir is so popular at the moment. It doesn’t take you by the hand and signpost everything you need to know, what it does instead is let you experience the important events that make up the entire story and let you realise the truth, feel the tragedy of the piece and understand the story” Paul Metcalf, pisseofgeek.com