Sekten

Susanne Bier, who has previously specialised in family dramas such as the excellent "Freud Leaving Home", is now on the scene with a new film in a genre in which female directors rarely work. Credo is a psychological thriller about the bride-to-be Mona, who learns that her best friend Anne has joined a mysterious sect led by the psychiatrist Dr Lack. Mona tries to come to Anne's rescue, but is at the same time fascinated by Dr Lack and his promises of a better life. Mona is evidently not happy in her affluent high-tech life, where her boyfriend, future husband Martin, is as far away as Hong Kong and never gets in touch, and her mother-in-law-to-be is a strong-willed woman who is well under way with planning Mona and Martin's future. It is not at all surprising that Mona lets herself be lured.

Mona is, however, ultimately a level-headed girl who sees through Dr Lack's lies to the abuse of power and disturbed minds of him and his wife Karen. In a somewhat too facile ending, Mona frees Anne from Dr Lack's physical prison.

Credo has a cooler and more carefully considered production design than one is otherwise used to seeing in Danish films. The sleek design becomes an image of the superficial lives the main characters lead, but the film itself does not entirely avoid seeming somewhat superficial. For example, the sect's principles and aims are never explained, so the sense of menace is provided mainly by the dark, labyrinthine flat where the sect is based, and by Stina Ekberg as the cool Karen Lack.

All in all, though, I must concede that Credo is an impressive venture into the thriller genre by Susanne Bier.