Pusher

Pusher is set in a harsh, criminal Copenhagen milieu where the pusher Frank makes easy money and enjoys life with his girlfriend, the champagne girl Vic, and his spaced-out friend Tony. One day things go wrong for Frank. He has to dump 180,000 kroner worth of drugs in the Copenhagen lakes, as the police have been tipped off about a deal. It is apparently Tony who has grassed, and he pays for it. The film's pace is cranked right up as Frank tries to get himself out of the crisis. Desperately he seeks out everyone who owes him money, but it is very telling of his bad luck that one of the debtors commits suicide right in front of him.

Frank shows more and more unpleasant sides of himself, but the film's real villains are the Yugoslav gangster Milo and his henchman. Milo speaks sweetly to Frank and calls him his friend, but what is said also contains everything unsaid, the threats and the abuse.

Pusher is a somewhat grotesque tale, because it simply lets Frank be the unluckiest man in the world for a week. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong. Vic actually saves Frank's life without knowing it when she runs off with the money, away from the empty promises. For Milo has promised Frank to forget about the missing money if he brings what he can scrape together. What only we know is that Milo is in fact preparing Frank's death.

Pusher is no great story, but there is fine acting in every role and the director shows the courage to innovate. For example, the film is divided into the seven days of the week over which it spans. There is extensive use of hand-held camera, which underlines the intense, somewhat nervy milieu in which Frank moves.

It is hard not to feel for Frank, even though in many ways he is a stupid jerk. We get a fairly full portrait of him. For example, he is a superficial person who is not in touch with his feelings. On no account must anyone, not even he himself, find out that he actually loves Vic. It is a hard world, and Nicolas Winding Refn does not shy away from showing the brutal violence either, but he certainly cannot be accused of idealising it!