In A Better World was last year's Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language film. It was Denmark's representative for their country and was directed by the highly-esteemed Susanne Bier. It is not a very easy movie to watch since it deals with the serious themes of violence and how to deal with them in our daily lives. It's the type of movie that could make you feel depressed about the world, but interestingly, I actually was captivated by this movie because it made me question how I deal with violence myself - or with people who have inflicted some form of violence on my person or to my family.
This movie is one of those rare movies that deal with Biblical themes like "turning the other cheek" or "an eye for an eye" and just allows the character to deal with their own responses as an ordinary human being would. The two boys in this movie are exemplary and their particular stories really draw you in. Then there are the adults who are undergoing turbulence in their lives as well. Everything is messy here and sad and will make you angry (watch what a tribal lord does to the vagina of a 14-year old girl and observe how you react), but it will make you more knowing of yourself and the world around you and that violent retribution is never the cure to pacify violent people and that "world peace" much maligned as it is here by our gay pageant jokes, actually is, what we all need!
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