Friday, October 10, 2008

The Danish Poet

A lovely treat today from the wonderful National Film Board of Canada.

Winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Short Subject Animation, The Danish Poet, from Director Torill Kove and narrated by Liv Ullmann, is a gentle film of love and intent and the underlying order of the Universe.

Can we trace the chain of events that leads to our own birth? Is our existence just coincidence? Do little things matter?

The narrator of The Danish Poet considers these questions as we follow Kasper, a poet whose creative well has run dry, on a holiday to Norway to meet the famous writer, Sigrid Undset. As Kasper's quest for inspiration unfolds, it appears that a spell of bad weather, an angry dog, slippery barn planks, a careless postman, hungry goats and other seemingly unrelated factors might play important roles in the big scheme of things after all.