The Danish Poet

How many times the romance of chance has been brought to life in stories, told, read, seen, and how often it always stirs the blood for unheard of possibilities, not simply the ones awaiting us in the future, but also which went by heeded or unheeded in the dense labyrinth of our lives! The Danish Poet, a Torill Kove traditionally animated film, is one such simple story, beautifully narrated in the slightly lilting voice of Liv Ullmann and subtitled with delightful little satires, pricks, and bits of humor woven in the story: the dog who found his mate also just because of a funeral, the doctor who gives a whiff of cigar smoke just before advising his patient for some fresh air, or the dog again who finally finds someone who does not kick him whenever he wants some affection.

The film’s basic premise is simple: how life is constructed of small chances, inasmuch as you might meet your future life partner on a journey which might not have been even at the stage of intent a few moments back. Liv Ullmann lends a delightful piquancy to the whole film, with her turns of dialogues, giving an anecdotal atmosphere to the whole film: which is what the film more or less is. It seems a delightful story that I would love my mother to tell me a cold night when the world would be sleeping, and yet the stars would be awake: when “seeds” would still be floating around. Far from stretched allegories, digital effects, or things that try to be above average by flexing your brain muscles, The Danish Poet is simply a refreshing romance, a kind of animation film which are now being made less and lesser, and a film which speaks to the heart: which simply touches you. The film deservedly won the Academy Award in 2007.