14 Movies Directed by Bille August

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Danish teens come of age in 1963. Bjorn and Erik are close friends. Bjorn is pursued by Kirsten, a future Stepford wife, but he falls for Anna, who initiates him into love and sex. Erik is somber, caring for his home-bound mentally-ill mother while his strict father rules his life. He desires Kirsten, but she's unattainable. Pregnancy, a horrific abortion, an engagement party, and a revelation about the rectitude of Erik's father lead to a climax: Bjorn and Erik must stand up to controlling adults.

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Denmark, 1961. Bjèrn, a middle-class boy in his early teens, wants to be accepted by Steen, a bullying peer of his with wealthy but freezingly cold parents. Bjèrn's other good friend is Mulle, a cheerful and more childish working-class boy. All three seem friends at first, but gradually Steen starts pushing Mulle away while pulling the impressionable Bjèrn with him towards more and more tragic violent behavior, fueled by frustration over his loveless home life.

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The end of the 19th century. A boat filled with Swedish emigrants comes to the Danish island of Bornholm. Among them are Lasse and his son Pelle who move to Denmark to find work. They find employment at a large farm, but are treated as the lowest form of life. Pelle starts to speak Danish but is still harassed as a foreigner. But none of them wants to give up their dream of finding a better life than the life they left in Sweden.

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The story of Ingmar Bergman's parents. In 1909, poor, idealistic theology student Henrik Bergman falls in love with Anna èkerbloom, the intelligent, educated daughter of a rich family in Uppsala. After their wedding Henrik becomes a priest in the north of Sweden. After a few years Anna can't stand living in the rural county with the uncouth people. She returns to Uppsala, Henrik stays in the north.

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Chile, second half of the 20th century. The poor Esteban marries Clara and they get a daughter, Blanca. Esteban works hard and eventually gets money to buy a hacienda, eventually to become a local patriarch. He becomes very conservative and is feared by his workers. When Blanca grows up, she falls in love with a young revolutionary, Pedro, who urges the workers to fight for socialism. It is unavoidable that Pedro and Esteban are pitted against each other. Esteban tries to stop the love affair between Pedro and his daughter by all means possible but soon Blanca becomes pregnant and has a daughter. The void between father and daughter seems unbridgeable when Blanca moves in with Pedro.

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The beginning of the 20th century. Gertrud and Ingmar are in love with each other. While Ingmar is away during the winter, a religious wave spreads in the area. Also Gertrud becomes a follower of the new Christian belief. The new priest is very mesmerizing and he wants his followers to emigrate with him to Palestine. Ingmar's sister decides to follow him and sells the home which has been the family's for centuries. The only way for Ingmar to save it is to marry the daughter of the man who buys it, Barbro. With Ingmar married to another, Gertrud cannot stay and follows the others to Palestine. However, Ingmar does not love Barbro. He is still in love with Gertrud and eventually follows her.

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Jean Valjean, a Frenchman imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a police officer named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.

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Based on Peter Hoeg's bestseller, this film is set in snowy Copenhagen where a small boy is found dead after he fell off a roof. Smilla Jasperson, a close friend who lives in the same house begins to suspect murder because she knows that the boy was afraid of heights and would not have played on the roof. As she begins to investigate, she is pulled deeper and deeper into a conspiracy that could very well mean her death.

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Famous composer Martin meets concertmaster Barbara at one of his performances, and the two fall in love. After divorcing their spouses, Martin and Barbara marry and begin a happy life together. Five years later, as the couple is working on a new opera, Martin is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. As Martin's condition worsens and his personality changes, the couple strain to hold on to the love that once brought them together.

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Charlotte Cory is a young woman convict on Death Row who has built up a friendship with Frank Nitzche through mail correspondence, whilst her attorney desperately tries to appeal the verdict before Charlotte's time runs out. With only days to spare Frank realizes that he has fallen in love with Charlotte and discovers that there is much more to the tragic circumstances of her imprisonment than he first thought - her life is now in his hands. Frank races to solve the puzzle that will reveal the truth, and tell the secrets that both he and Charlotte have been concealing, before it's too late.

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James Gregory once lived in a farm and had befriended a native youth, Bafana, and had even had a photograph taken with him. Years later, now married to Gloria and father of three children (Chris, Brett, and Natasha), James has nothing but shame and regret, as many South African Caucasians in the oppressive Apartheid-era ridiculed him, leading him to hate Africans. He seeks to redeem himself by spying on imprisoned African National Congress Leader, Nelson Mandela. In the restrictive high security prison his job is to censor all written and verbal communications between prisoners, their visitors, and correspondence. James is uncomfortable when he witnesses Caucasian police and security officers' brutality against civilians, including infants, and tries to understand why Nelson became a rebel. This leads him to examine the 'Freedom Charter', a banned document, reportedly known to incite violence against 'whites'. And when he does read this document, he changes his mind about Nelson's freedom struggle. Soon he, himself, will be alienated by his very own peers. Isolated, he receives death threats over the phone and has to face the trauma of the 'accidental' death of Brett. In addition, he and his family are kept under close watch by the security forces amidst tight economic sanctions by the international community, and growing unrest by the natives who continue their fight for equality, and freedom for Nelson Mandela.

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About an aging Swiss professor of classical languages who, after a chance encounter with a Portuguese woman, quits his job and travels to Lisbon in the hope of discovering the fate of a certain author, a doctor and poet who fought against Portuguese dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar.

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At the beginning of the 20th century, Marie is married to Denmark's world famous painter P.S. Krèyer. They are among the country's most admired and famous couples. All the great men of the time - politicians, businessmen, noblemen, scientists, writers and royalty - wish to be depicted by Krèyer, and he can ask any price he wants. To be painted by him is a great honour and comes with great prestige. Marie, who adorns several of Krèyer's paintings, is considered to be "the most beautiful woman in Europe". Together with their daughter Vibeke they experience all the best life has to offer: parties, champagne and luxury. However, this is only the polished surface. Beneath it is living hell. Krèyer suffers from manic depression and syphilis. He can change from being cheerful and upbeat, to a foaming crazy monster without any boundaries, also within his relationship to Marie and Vibeke. Marie has struggled to keep up appearances for a long time, but the situation is wearing her down. She is caught in an impossible situation between maintaining the bright social life and the hell unfolding behind closed doors. She feels that she is being suffocated and that she is disappearing. After another of Krèyer's violent fits of insanity and rage, Marie decides to leave for Italy with their daughter; to go away for a while and recuperate. In Italy she meets the younger Swedish composer Hugo Alfvèn. He falls head over heels in love with her and she finally yields to his unreserved and unrestrained emotions. However, their union is not a happy one. Marie is caught between a new life on one side and her love for Vibeke and Krèyer on the other. In the first place, she was not even searching for love, she was searching for herself. It is this painful road, the road towards your own true self, which Marie is following in The Passion of Marie. And she succeeds - but it all comes at a cost.

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Three generations of a family coming together over a weekend. A sick mother's wish to die before her disease worsens gets harder to handle as old conflicts come to the surface.