Christiania

synopsis

One of Denmark’s most iconic social experiments began in 1971, when hundreds of young people moved into an abandoned military base in Copenhagen and established Christiania, a parallel society with its own set of rules. Now Karl Friis Forchhammer is moving there, seeking to understand the story of his parents, who lived there until he was born. He asks himself how one can be tolerant while at the same time preventing both external and internal destructive social phenomena. Collective idealism and the rhetoric of individual freedom attracted drug gangs and violence. A portrait of a parallel society offers a crash course in survival in a community where social consensus, rather than majority rule, prevails.

“Residents decide on issues that affect the area, with the central principle being that a consensus has to be reached, rather than deciding matters by a majority vote.” — Leo Barraclough

Source: Variety

biography

Karl Friis Forchhammer (1989) is a Danish documentary filmmaker who studied film and television at the University of Copenhagen. He has directed Cooking Experiments (2011), Another Danish Spring (2015) and Ravens (2019). Ji.hlava IDFF screened his film What to Do While Trains Pass By (2016), which was made at FAMU.

film details

director:	Karl Friis Forchhammer
producer:	Rikke Tambo Andersen
script:	Karl Friis Forchhammer