A delight in heaven

by RICHARD JONES

IF you were moved by ABC-TV's recent series The Choir Of Hard Knocks you're going to really enjoy the Swedish film As It Is In Heaven.

Successful conductor Daniel Dareus (Michael Nyqvist) is at the top of his game, internationally acclaimed, but suffering from the demands of his frenetic life style.

Apart from being exhausted, lonely and downright miserable Daniel's also plagued by a dodgy heart.

So he's decided to get some valuable rest and relaxation by retreating to his home village in a remote part of northern Sweden.

There, despite the suspicions of the local people fuelled by repressed Pastor Stig (Niklas Falk), guess what Daniel ends up doing ?

That's right. He takes on the local, amateur choir which sings in the village Lutheran church. It doesn't happen overnight, though.

First of all local entrepreneur Arne (Lennart Jahkel) talks Daniel into listening to them sing. Remember Daniel is an orchestra conductor, not a choirmaster, so he has to attune his skills to managing human voices and using them as his instruments.

That comes along nicely before he has to help resolve the personal problems of the people, particularly the women, in his choir - Inger (Ingela Olsson) who is the pastor's wife, uptight and single Siv (Ylva Loof) and Gabriella (Helen Sjoholm) who is abused by her husband.

Add young and bubbly love interest Lene (Frida Hallgren) to the mix and Daniel is forced to walk an emotional tightrope.

Anyway, the choir progresses so well that it's accepted into the annual Let The People Sing festival in Innsbruck, Austria. It's there that the film's denouement is set and director Kay Pollak's final dramatic scenes take place.

As It Is In Heaven is a delightful movie and was nominated in the Best Foreign Film category at the 77th Academy Awards.

13 November 2007

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