Reviews

• “Gustav Möller follows up The Guilty with another well-acted chamber play that almost literally captivates the audience with its ethical dilemma.”

• “Sidse Babett Knudsen is no less than utterly magnetic in this lingering and increasingly intense tale. /…/ Director Gustav Möller delivers his story effectively and no less claustrophobically unnerving than in the breakthrough film The Guilty. This film, too, is stylish, minimalist and with an absolutely excellent sound design which enhances the performances.”

• “Approximately a million films have been made with revenge as a theme, but Gustav Möller’s Sons is nevertheless its own film and hits like a fist in the solar plexus – not least due to Sidse Babett Knudsen being in absolute top shape.”

• “A nerve-wracking film about the darkest sides of man – a truly harrowing experience.”

• “As audience, you are trapped in an intense, nerve-wracking tautness throughout the film.”

• “As impressive a sequel as The Guilty was an impressive debut. Perhaps even more impressive. For Sons proves, if anything, that The Guilty was not a one-off performance. /…/ Gustav Möller once again displays the same strengths — this time on a larger canvas — against the background of Möller and Emil Nygaard Albertsen’s polished and well-thought-out script. /…/ The result is a film that is a true cinematic experience. A universe which probably has roots in reality, but that can only be experienced exactly like this in the cinema.”

• “Sons is not a pleasant experience, but rather a big, violent, important and thought-provoking one.”

• “The film’s greatest strength is how it portrays people who are unable to relate to themselves or to their surroundings. Be it through words, by action or as an escape from reality; none of them are able to express themselves and that turns out to be the real prison. That is also why Gustav Möller is left with a strong sequel that really dares to deal with a core problem for so many people, regardless of whether they are inmates or outside the prison walls.”

• “Gustav Möller makes an eerily sharp autopsy of the nature of hatred and the absurd costs of punishment. /…/ With Sons, Gustav Möller emphasizes that he, as one of a vanishingly small group of filmmakers, can depict man’s darkest corners and moral dilemmas with very, very few tools. ”

• “Sons is an intense, fascinating and psychological prison drama. You cannot escape the confines of the prison – neither from within nor outside the walls. Sidse Babett Knudsen and Sebastian Bull are excellent in this chamber play, where the emotions sit deep inside the body.”

• “You can’t help but think about Sons for a long time. The film is simply captivating.”

• “Gustav Möller is a phenomenal filmmaker. ”

• “A thrilling, tense, and terrifying journey of morality and justice. /…/ There is barely a moment to breathe in Sons, such is its explosive potential.”

• “Gustav Moller’s follow-up to his acclaimed debut The Guilty, this oppressive and atmospheric prison drama is superbly acted. /…/ A tough, taut character study of a woman driven, against all better judgement, to increasingly reckless and dangerous acts.”

• “The movie may be called Sons, but it’s these two mothers who provide its richest parallel, as both have experienced the failure and frustration of seeing the boys they raised go astray. /…/ But how far does she plan to take her retribution? For Borgen fans, Knudsen’s performance reveals a more unpredictable side of the star, who gives an at-times feral turn fueled by rage and regret.”