Shadow Plays

A peace-loving prince and his followers dream of eternal peace – pax aeterna. So far, they have been successful only within the realm. When the neighbouring state declares war, the prince’s heart stops beating. Is the vision of global peace just a naive dream, or will his followers be able to see it through? (stumfilm.dk)

Open marriages, friends and lovers, secrets and lies are all coming to light after a fatal accident during a party. Was it murder? Early Leif Panduro drama.

A judge sees his illegitimate daughter face trial for infanticide. He's certain that she will receive the death sentence.

Magda, a piano teacher, meets Knud, a parson’s son, who invites her to spend the summer at his parents’ parsonage. When a travelling circus stops in the village, Magda leaves the meek Knud for the dashing circus rider Rudolf. But circus life with Rudolf quickly turns out to be anything but happy, and Magda comes to a tragic end.

When Møller Jakob Clausen of "Højmøllen" sits at his wife's deathbed, he makes her promise that if he marries again, he will choose a woman who will be good to their little son, Hans. And in motherly care for her little son, the dying wife mentions the forester's gentle and kind sister, Hanne, who will surely be able to become both a faithful wife for the miller and a good mother for Hans.

Anders returns to Denmark to visit his ill mom too late. Her lawyer tells him he's the illegitimate child of an estate owner. He goes there incognito and works on the big farm and falls for the maid and later for a gold digger.

The manufacturer Laroque stops at nothing when trying to destroy his enemies, and this time Fréderic Nessières, one of his competitors, is in the line of fire. With his diabolical, hypnotic power, Laroque has snared Nessières’s wife, Madeleine, in his evil web, and she will now do anything to help her husband’s enemy. But even though Laroque’s first plan to ruin Nessières fails, he does not give up. Once he has selected a victim, he will quite literally fight to the death to vanquish them. (stumfilm.dk)

In a large shoe store, Erik Hansen is the salesman for a sweet and smart young girl, Edith Bjørnfeldt, with whom he falls head over heels in love. He persuades her to go out with him in the evening. At a dance restaurant, they accidentally meet Edith's brother Willy Bjørnfeldt, a Copenhagener and one of the smart go-out types of the time. When Edith and her brother are alone at the table for a moment, Willy advises her to seize the opportunity and marry Erik, and thus say goodbye to the shoe business, which is hanging over her by the throat.

Anna Frank has worked very hard save every penny so that her son Kai can get an education. When he does pass his exam Anna cracks and collapses.

Ellekjær's future is on Ann-Marie's mind. She tries to get her adopted daughter, Grete, married to Erik von der Rude, but Grete loves the farmhand Jørgen. They decide to get married, after which Annemarie disowns Grete. However, Ann-Marie's other daughter, Elin, is in love with Erik. Erik's past in Copenhagen catches up with him, and Elin moves in with her sister. The film then goes through a series of complications before Elin and Erik can finally get married and Ann-Marie is reunited with her daughters.

Attorney Krogh and his wife, Gerda, are distraught about their only son, Kai, a wastrel and ne’er-do-well with no aim or direction in life. Kai again asks his mother for money and Gerda cannot refuse, even selling her jewellery when her son falls deep into debt. Can Kai be steered away from the abyss that awaits him? (stumfilm.dk)

The social storm after World War I divides the people. In the eye of the storm are three brothers fighting for the lower classes, each in his own way. Waldo the blacksmith wants a world revolution by power and violence. Ernst the typographer is convinced that knowledge and understanding, enlightenment and education is the way to go. And Kurt the ethereal watchmaker sees society as a malfunctioning clockwork that can be fixed by a simple yet drastic intervention. (Stumfilm.dk)

This film could easily be a true story taken from contemporary Denmark. It is a typical Tuesday morning: stormy weather, slush, and bitter cold. Two young women are cycling to work. They make an unpleasant discovery: they find a dead man on a bench in the park.

The Danish Ingen tid til Kaertegn (Be Dear to Me) is heavily reliant on the appeal of its star, 8-year-old Eva Cohn. Our heroine is the neglected child of a businessman father and actress mother. Feeling that happiness lies well outside her own backyard, Eva goes on a search for that happiness. The longer she stays away, the more her parents realize that they've unfairly ignored her. The plot is nothing new: it's what is done with it that pleases the eye and ear. Ingen tid til Kaertegn was one of the more popular entries in the 1957 Berlin Film Festival.

Martha, a war widow, finds a new zest for life when she meets the noble Captain von Tilling. They marry, but before long he, too, is called to war. In his absence, Martha falls into a depression and is hospitalised. Sick with longing and learning that her banking firm has gone belly-up, she leaves the hospital and takes a train to the battlefield to find her husband. (stumfilm.dk)

A woman is found strangled in her shop. Shortly after, another murder is committed. Perhaps the most terrifying is that the both girls' name is Sonja. The police is convinced it's the same killer and at each scene is heard a woman singing the same song. A song which is soon dubbed the 'murder melody.'

On the 9th of April 1940, the crew of a Danish merchant ship receives the news of Germany's invasion of Denmark. Instead of returning home, they vote in favor of setting course for England. The crew will undergo much hardship over the next five years ...

A young woman of good family is driven into one of thieves and prostitutes and ends in suicide.

After his father's will stipulates he must marry Bella Wilfer to inherit his fortune, John Harmon fakes his death to avoid the marriage and the threats on his life. He returns as John Rokesmith and becomes the secretary for the Boffins, who inherit Harmon's estate following his alleged death.

A suspense tale revolving around the memories of a Danish saboteur as he awaits his execution in a German war-time prison.

The celebrated operetta prima donna Elsa Bruun is famous nationwide for her amazing smile. One day she is approached by a shabby man who pushes a script on her. Without wanting to, Elsa becomes deeply involved in the story, which becomes her path to a renewed understanding of life, which must be lived out even if it may cost her trademark: the golden smile.

In the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean on the island of Troldø lives a single farming family. The grandmother Gunhild is the only woman on the island and her son Enok is unable to find a wife. Gunhild's advanced age causes her to worry for the future of the family. So she initiates a plan to get Enok married, a plan that is put into action when the young Eva becomes stranded on the island. But the community must be shaken by several dramatic events before Gunhild can breathe a sigh of relief.

The popular Danish family are vacationing on the island of Bornholm. Unfortunately, they have not been able to get hotel rooms, but Tiny Per, always resourceful, have come up with the idea that they must sleep in a tent. Father and Uncle Anders are not quite enthusiastic about the idea, but there is nothing else to do.

Opposite Regensen lives the brave and well-off coppersmith Smidt with his equally brave wife and their delightful young daughter Rikke, as well as the three journeymen Madsen, Mikkel and Lars, who, according to old craftsman custom, both eat and stay with the master. When an acquaintance of journeyman Madsen comes to visit, he learns that he is unhappily in love with Rikke, and he promises to help him get in touch with her.

The wealthy Olaf Brammer is the real owner of a nationwide company that trades in household goods. But he has no say, as the authoritative general manager Schram manages both the business and Olaf Brammer with a sure hand. The situation at work, defeat in love and a dead goldfish make Olaf Brammer depressed, and he decides to travel away from it all.

Poul and Alva have been married for a few years when dark clouds begin to gather over their marriage. The dream of having a child doesn’t come true, and the couple drifts further and further apart. Alva escapes into her great passion – music, while Poul becomes embittered by the injustice of fate. When he meets the smiling and cheerful Eva, it doesn’t take him long to forsake Alva and enter into a new marriage. Yet Poul remains unhappy, for Eva is a spendthrift who knows nothing about housekeeping. Alone and abandoned, his thoughts begin to wander back to Alva, the love of his youth. Has he been deceived by the illusion of happiness? Stumfilm.dk

The priest in Solby borrows 2,000 kroons from the parish council treasury to pay for one of his parishioners' hospital stays in Germany. Marianne, the rich man's daughter, is to be a bridesmaid in Aalborg and is leaving Copenhagen for Jutland. In Solby, she drives too fast through the town, which is why she has a car accident and ends up in the priest's garden! She immediately starts to lead everyone around the rectory, which Aunt Marie is definitely not happy about. The priest, on the other hand, is attracted to the girl. They swim in the lake and go to a ball together, which leads to Mrs. Larsen coming in to talk to the bishop. After Marianne has returned to Copenhagen, the bishop announces his arrival at the rectory. Where will the priest now find the 2,000 kroons? The priest has a number of friends who are trying to help him, but he also receives unexpected help from the bishop.

Hilleborg always speaks negatively about her king's marriage to his left hand, Countess Danner. When it is rumored that King Frederik VII and Countess Danner are on their way to Hilleborg and her husband, Niels Parsberg's estate, Hilleborg refuses to be in the living room with the Countess. She switches roles with the housemaid, Lise Sørensen. Lise and Countess Danner quickly become good friends, while Hilleborg's situation worsens when the king decides to spend the night at the estate.

In 1911 the German poet Hugo von Hofmansthal wrote a new version of the medieval morality play Everyman, and this was staged in Danish translation at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen in 1915. At the time, it was radical example of symbolist abstraction. Its success inspired a film version, Enhver [Everyman], directed by Vilhelm Glückstadt for Filmfabrikken Danmark. The film, however, was set in a modern-day environment. It depict the moral choice confronting its protagonist at struggle because two attendant spirits, one good and one bad. The protagonist is tempted by dark figure of evil and succumbs, rejecting God and leading a life of iniquity, but he is then haunted by guilty visions until he finally dies, asking God for forgiveness at the last moment.