COPENHAGEN DOES NOT EXIST/ København findes ikke

Denmark, 2023, 99 minutes, Colour.

Angela Byndalovic, Jonas Holst Schmidt, Zlatko Buric, Vilmer Trier Brogger.

Directed by Martin Skovbjerg.

An enigmatic drama, principally for those who are interested in Danish cinema, for cineastes who might enjoy exploring the dramatic and emotional enigmas.

The setting is Copenhagen, homes, streets, countryside… All presented rather sombrely.

The central character is Sander, a morose personality, being interrogated by his father-in-law concerning the disappearance of Sander’s wife. It is also being covered by video, photographed by the brother of Ida, Sander’s wife.

The film moves to reconstruct the initial encounter between the two, the partnership, life together, Ida and her moods, her lack of contact with her father, resentment against him. And, some of these sequences also appear in flashbacks during the interrogation.

The father is demanding and bombastic, successful in life, wanting to know the truth about his daughter and her alienation. The brother is often curt and resentful.

And while Sander continues to remain enigmatic, changing his moods, changing details of the story, Ida comes to the centre, the audience understanding her alienation from her father, but her move away from him, no contact, the liaison with Sander and her treatment of him, his response to her – and final disappearance and the audience pondering Sander’s motivations.