In Denmark they eat raisins with their roast pork and slivers of meat on every slice of bread, father Lasse (played by the leading Swedish actor Max von Sydow) promises his boy. Children don't have to work in the daytime, but can play as much as they want to. It all sounds like heaven on earth, thinks Pelle (played by 11-year-old Pelle Hvenegaard, who is actually named after Pelle the Conqueror).
Humbleness
In real life though the two end up as herdsmen at the horrible Stone Farm where a sadistic master and his apprentice treat workers like slaves. Only Big Erik has the nerve to stand up to them. He wants to travel around the world and promises to take Pelle with him. In two years' time, when the snow melts. But a confrontation with the master builds up and it is extremely doubtful whether Erik will be able to keep his promise.
All around him, Pelle sees the socially weak being oppressed, an experience he himself shares with them. His beloved father Lasse is humble and lets Pelle down and it begins to dawn on the boy that not everyone can be strong in this life and he realises that he must get away in order not to become part of the unfair system.
Father and son
The book by Martin Andersen Nexoe, who became a communist later on, is a sharp social criticism and a tribute to the struggling proletarian. August tells a more personal story about an oppressed person who has to escape in order to survive. At the same time the film is a warm story about the love between father and son.
The film Pelle the Conqueror won the Palme d'or at the film festival in Cannes in 1988 and the following year an Oscar for Best Foreign Film, launching Danish film director Bille August's international career.
Christian Monggaard is a film reviewer and critic for the daily newspaper Information.
Pelle Hvenegaard and Max von Sydow in Pelle the Conqueror (Pelle erobreren). Photo: Rolf Konow. Producent: Per Holst Film. © Nordisk Film.