“I do not wanna grow up to become gray and then disappear.”
The world, as we know it, is changing. Buried in problems, worried that tomorrow may turn out worse than today, adults warn children and each other that the world is “an evil and horrible place” . One day, the hopelessness and despair overwhelms them. The blood of the adults turns from red to gray and then they leave – just disappear and no one knows where they go. The children are the last survivors – with dreams and hopes of the future – but left on their own, will they manage to fend for themselves? What if the hopelessness gets to them – that fear of the future that has poisoned the lives of their parents and other friends…
………..
That is the setting of the 2008 Danish short film We Who Stayed Behind. A post- apocalyptic world in which Adam (Tobias Mikkel Jørgensen), a ten-year-old boy, is one of the children who remained sane. Every day he roams the lifeless streets of his city and tries to make sense of the world. Growing up in a world in which a feeling of uncertainty prevails and picking a path to follow in life is not an easy task for a young confused boy. And when his young friend gets infected by the hopeless despair, Adam has to make a choice and act — to seek for a reason to keep on and try to save his friend, himself and may be the world as a consequence.
We Who Stayed Behind feels like a modern day fairy tale. It’s a melancholic, yet pleasurable, portrayal of a world not much different than the one we live in – when bad happenings and disasters make news, while the good is often waved off as unimportant. Terrorists, perverts, bullies, climate changes, war and destruction …the list of fears goes on and on. Will we manage to find a reason to keep on? Director Martin De Thurah challenges the viewers of the film by showing us the world as seen and experienced by a young boy, a boy each one of you can identify with regardless of age, race, creed, religion or lack of religion.
We Who Stayed Behind ( Vi der blev tilbage ) Official Trailer
http://youtu.be/ayAh7eyV1oM
I am fond of Coming-of-Age films and every time I stumble upon movies like We Who Stayed Behind, I emerge enriched with a newly found knowledge of the world we live in. Viewing the experience on the screen, my thoughts while watching such movies (and after I have seen them) help my own rite of passage. Despite the grim portrayal of the world in Martin De Thurah’s film, its ending is a positive one and offers a solution – showing a way to survive and move on.
Film title: We Who Stayed Behind
Also known as: Vi der blev tilbage
Release year: 2008 – Nimbus Film Productions, Omeletfilm
Director: Martin de Thurah
Cast: Claus Flygare, Coco Hjardemaal ,Tobias Mikkel Jørgensen and others