Shower of Gold

(aka GULDREGN, GOLDREGEN)
(1988, Denmark) color 1.66:1 95 minutes
Story: Anbers Bodelsen
Camera: Dan Laustsen dff.
Music: Jacob Groth
Producer: Tivi Magnusson
Director: Søren Kragh-Jacobsen

Cast: Nanna Bøndergaard (Nanna Christensen), Ken Vedsegaard (Lasse Brandt), Tania Frydensberg (Karen Brandt), Ricki Rasmussen (Jørn), Kirsten Cenius (Nanna's Mother), Ulla Gottlieb (Lasse's Mother), Hans Henrik Clemmensen (Lasse's father), Helle Merete Sørensen (Jørn's Mother), Jens Okking (Jørn's Father), Kamilla Kæmpe (Vivi), Søren Østergaard (Mannicke), Torben Jensen (Solskærmen)

Synopsis: One day, whilst quietly reading in an old woodland barn used as a children’s den, a young girl, Nanna, observes a man acting suspiciously nearby, apparently burying something in the ground beneath a tree. Later she returns, with her friends Lasse, Jørn, and Karen - Lasse’s kid sister - to investigate. To their astonishment the biscuit tin they dig up is found to be stuffed full of bank notes, some 800,000 Danish crowns in total! Taking the money back to Jørn’s house, the children try to find out where the treasure trove has come from. It soon transpires that the cash has been stolen from a local Post Office, and the kids decide to wait for a reward to be posted so as to claim it. However, the thieves have found out the money is missing, and after finding Nanna’s library card dropped nearby, begin the hunt for her address... Having located Nanna's house, seeing a young girl coming out of the front door, one of the criminals abducts the child, driving her away in his black van, in an attempt to force the location of the money out of her. But it is not Nanna who has been snatched, but little Karen, who had been paying a visit to her friend... Finally the terrified girl tells her kidnapper where the cash is, before being dumped in the middle of nowhere minus her spectacles, without which she is practically blind... Eventually returned home unhurt, quick-witted Karen has managed to glean vital clues as to the location of the robber’s hide-out. Setting out to find the thieves, the plucky kids soon find they have placed themselves in potential peril; the criminals are armed and dangerous... and desperate! What will be the outcome of this risky adventure?

***

Review: A thoroughly enjoyable family film from Denmark, which deftly balances the dramatic plot ingredients, ensuring that events never become too dark-toned, nevertheless remaining sufficiently exciting without resorting to overblown action scenes and show-off SPFX sequences as is too often the norm these days. GULDREGN is of course a humbly-financed production, being derived from a popular Danish kids TV series of the 1980s, and is rooted in truly believable circumstances. It boasts a firm emphasis on strong characters, both child and adult, and a plot that refuses to talk down to its intended audience. Here the children are not wise-cracking mini-adults but refreshing reminders of a period where children were still able to find fun in playing in the woods and messing about on bicycles; no now-ubiquitous cell-phones and internet access on display here, the most advanced technological tools available to these youngsters are clunky walkie-talkies!

With GULDREGN think more along the lines of Enid Blyton’s ‘Famous Five’ meets EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES rather than super-trendy CGI-bolstered Hollywood froth like SPY KIDS (bleugh!). These kids may appear clever, but they also have an essential naïvety and frailty which is brought to the fore during the tense sequence where Karen is being interrogated by her abductor, her face smudged with silent tears as she loyally holds off from divulging her friends’ plans for as long as possible - a very moving scene. The children begin to squabble and argue amongst themselves over the money as they weave fantasies about being rich; Nanna holds on to one of the bank-notes - unbeknown to the others - spending the entire film fighting with her conscience about what to do with it, before quietly slipping it into the jacket pocket of one of the thieves as they are being arrested at the film’s stirring climax. There is a moral message or two at work here, but so subtly introduced as to be almost subliminal and definitely not preachy.

Castwise we are presented with a likeable bunch of talented child actors in the central roles; Nanna Christensen and Tanya Friedensberg are particularly good, which makes it odd that this seems to be the only film they ever appeared in. Elsewhere Torben Jensen and Søren Østergaard are effective as the gun-toting, motorbike-riding and kiddy-snatching bad guys. It was also refreshing to see the children’s respective parents being portrayed so realistically here, complete with explosions of petty annoyance and the kind of parental authoritarianism that is rarely shown (or perhaps even possible) in kids’ films in these days of rampant familial disfunctionality. One comes away from a viewing of GULDREGN feeling satisfied and with a wish that more children’s films could be of this calibre. Director Søren Kragh-Jacobsen has delivered the goods here. Non-flashy, intelligent and well made entertainment, as one would surely expect from Scandinavia.

DVD availability: In Denmark from Sandrews Metronome Video - anamorphic 1.66:1, with extras in the form of an interview with and a feature-length commentary by script writer Anders Bodelsen and director Søren Kragh-Jacobsen - Danish language. Also available in Germany from Atlas Film Medien/Laser Paradise - non-anamorphic 1.66:1 (cover says wrongly that it’s 16.9 enhanced) with nice picture quality but no extras - German dubbed version.

Nigel Burrell