The Making of "Dansk for begyndere": a dogme film by Esben's class

Dansk for begyndere was made at Københavns Universitet, Amagar by my danish class during our last lesson. Scritp-writing, rehersal and shooting were all done in three hours. Camera work was done by Esben Lydiksen, our dansk lærer, and the opening by Daniela Walchli.

We wanted to make a film which followed the rules of Dogme 95, as a tribute to our host country, maybe. It had given us some minimal form of literacy in its peculiar language. And, as in the case of other Dogma films, the manifesto suited us well in terms of our limited budget and schedule.

Tak skal du have to Esben for his fint camera work and for getting our film onto dvd. This teacher rocks, people! See for yourselves: www.superhabit.dk

Tak ogsa to Cynthia, a.k.a princess_party, for putting the film onto YouTube so that it could be watched here. You absolutely rock, too!

As for the dialogue... well, we are working on some english subtitles at the moment. Here is the gist:

1: Toilet Scene. This is pretty straight-forward. Except, why is Claudia in the men's toilets? I actually don't know that one, sorry.

2: Hallway. As Claudia walks, you can hear "Lækker" by Nic og Jay. They're a danish rap/hip hop duo, and the title apparently means "hard", as in a hard to get woman or something. Anyway, it's catchy, and it suits the vikings who sing it very well, but it's not so bad as Denmark's other famous single, Aqua's "Babie Girl". But back to the film...

3: Classroom 1. Angela and Daniela are wondering why Claudia isn't in class, and Ai explains that Claudia called her that morning to say that she's not feeling well. When she finally arrives, they ask her if she is still going out with them that evening. She explains that she has to pike because she's got the flu and a headache and has a doctor's appointment later. Just wait, it gets interesting ...

4: Classroom 2. Claudia is asked to go out again by Florian, Philipp and Robert, this time for coffee after class, and everyone agrees to go except her. Santiago comes in dripping wet and asks them all to go to have coffee with him, but they are all "busy" - going swimming, going out - or "tired". Claudia replies: "Of course, I would like to." Her "flu" miraculously disappears!

5: Cafe. Claudia and Santiago go for coffee and discover that they both love chocolate cake and romantic films - and he loves her scarf. They don't drink coffee at all, but order tea instead, and pay Rosa before the cake even arrives! But both are too preoccupied by each other's deeep eyes to care, and Claudia, unfazed by Santiago's revelation that he is a divorcee with a young son, declares that she loves him. Now comes the worst bit - a rather shady looking officer from Danish Foreign Affairs arrives in the cafe and informs Claudia that she is to be deported to Italy on the grounds that she has Hepatitis B and is in breach of her student visa. The love story tragically ends...

Closing credits: Tr. The End (just incase you were wondering what it meant)

And there you have it: Danish for Beginners.

Written by the actors, plus Emily and Marriana (and hopefully no one else I've forgotten).

SLUT

p.s. Music by F. Chopin and Coldplay, performed by the chick from Foreign Affairs