Søndagsengler

As far back as 1991, the Norwegian director Berit Nesheim depicted the girl Frida's teenage woes in "Frida - med hjertet i hånden". I fell head over heels for that one. Now Nesheim's Søndagsengler has reached Denmark, which is probably not least because the film was Oscar-nominated last year.

Like "Frida", Søndagsengler is about a girl's universe, but this time the story is set not in the present but in 1959. The Norwegian village community, as the film depicts it, is sharply divided between strict Christian faith and the new spirit of the age, which can be characterised by, among other things, looser morals, youth culture and rock & roll. Since Maria is the eldest daughter of the area's well-liked but frighteningly strict pastor, she has grown up in a home where pleasure and zest for life are close to being dirty words. So it is not so strange that rebellion is smouldering in Maria. She goes so far as to tell her father that she does not wish to be confirmed. For a while Maria flirts with the forbidden life, but because of her upbringing she cannot bring herself to live that life to the full. In the end Maria chooses to be confirmed after all, but it is not her father's stern God she says yes to, but her own gentle one.

Another important figure in Maria's coming-of-age story is the organist Mrs. Tunheim, who embodies the sensuality and sincerity the Christian congregation lacks. Maria discovers that she is not alone in feeling Mrs. Tunheim's attraction. In secret, her father, the venerable pastor, has been having an affair with Mrs. Tunheim. From her hiding place in the church, Maria witnesses him breaking it off. Mrs. Tunheim is stifled in her own rebellion, but for Maria there is still hope.

Søndagsengler is not as inspired as "Frida". At the same time it feels less relevant because it is set in a long-gone decade, but its precise portrayals of people and its wry humour lift it above the average.