Home Sweet Home (2025)
Frelle Petersen is currenltty one of the most interesting Danish directors. All his films have been fantastic little masterpieces, and his style and expression are completely unique in Danish cinema. This is his fourth film, and it’s set up to be the one that will make him more widely recognized. The movie has received a bigger promotional push (posters at bus stops) and it has already sold around 65,000 tickets.
Jette Søndergaard again plays the lead role in Frelle Petersen’s film, and as always she is great with her authentic charisma and presence. It’s equally impressive how Frelle once again manages to get untrained actors to perform so well, though they largely just need to play themselves as the film almost takes the form of a documentary. It is however clearly a feature film with an artistic vision using cinematic techniques, which in a way makes the film’s “message” (that’s not quite the right word here) be much clear.
Where I think the film works is that it shows reality as it is, where we as viewers can think further about what we want to take home with us. Sofie is portrayed sympathetically, and there are indeed a couple of characters that could be called antagonists, but it’s not the film’s purpose as such to portray home care workers as everyday heroes or the political system as inhumane. You can draw those conclusions yourself if you want.
What makes me think it doesn’t quite reach the same level as especially Uncle did for me is that there isn’t much element of doubt. You are rarely in doubt about why someone does what they do, their feelings, or where the film is going. His earlier films were incredibly exciting because they were full of ambiguity, confusion, and surprises. This isn’t so much criticism as personal taste in what I look for in films like this, because it’s still in every way a fantastic film that deserves to be seen widely and will hopefully get more people to look into Frelle Petersen’s previous films.
Rating: 4