Writer/director Tea Lindeburg's dramatic historical coming of age film "As in Heaven" features a brilliant screenplay and gorgeous cinematography among a beautifully devastating story and lead performance.
The film begins on a farm in the late 1800s where 14-year-old Lise (Flora Ofelia Hofmann Lindahl) is preparing to leave her family to go away to school. With her pregnant mother (Ida Cæcilie Rasmussen) on the cusp of labor and her father leaving the family's farm on business, Lise must care for her younger brothers and sisters while the rest of her family and their staff tend to her mother. Once that labor begins to take a turn for the worst, Lise must contend with the difficult fact that her childhood may be coming to an end.
"As in Heaven" is a heavy film that explores its themes with grace and compassion. Its tone often mirrors the emotional journey that Lise goes on throughout the film. At the film's start, the viewer feels the childlike wonder and excitement that Lise expresses as she enjoys her time on her family's farm. As the story progresses and her mother's labor becomes more complicated and harrowing, the viewer feels the same distress and anxiety felt by Lise.
This is all thanks to Lindahl's incredible lead performance. The number of complex emotions that Lindahl is able to communicate directly through her facial expressions is truly on another level. By the film's end, the viewer identifies with her pain as they recall back to the film's beginning when all they can remember is the joy that Lindahl beamed through her performance.
Rasmussen is equally brilliant as a mother who is forced to go through some of the worst suffering imaginable, all the while having to convince her children that everything will be okay.
By the film's heartbreaking conclusion, viewers are left to wonder if its events could have somehow been avoided. At a time when people weren't as educated about the process of childbirth as they are today, it even makes them wonder why the modern world seems to be moving backward rather than forward in terms of the recent decisions that have been made in the United States on abortion. Hopefully, audiences will watch this film and understand the impact and importance that proper reproductive health has in society.
Lindeburg does not portray the film's themes in a condescending manner, but rather in a way that seeks to remind viewers of how far society has come since the period during which the film takes place. She allows the viewer to breathe and sit with the material that the film presents as it occurs in a way that is truly impactful. For good reason, this is a film that will be sure to stay in viewers' minds long after the credits have rolled.
