A Matter of Trust (Denmark, 2022)
A Matter of Trust (or: Ingen Kender Dagen) is a Danish movie, in which five separate stories are intertwined.
Director Annette K. Olesen asked five Danish authors for a short story she and screenwriter Maren Louise Käehne then turned into a feature length script.
The movie takes place over the course of one day and even though there is no real connection between the characters from different stories, the movie still feels whole, because the storylines are all about trust - and disappointment.
There is a relatively lighthearted one about adultery, the others are more serious in tone. Like the one in which doctor Eva (Trine Dyrholm) flies to Afghanistan on a repatriation flight. It is clear that not all of the passengers are happy to go back to their native country, but the movie wisely doesn’t judge, leaving the audience to make up their own mind. In another story a mother and daughter are on the run from an abusive husband, while they walk through the Danish countryside in search of a summer house they used to visit.
I was intrigued by the one in which a young married couple attend a funeral, where the man isn’t really welcome and his, who is three weeks pregnant, finds out something about her husband’s past, which shakes her to the core.
For me the movie is about how trust between people is eroded by disappointment, in each other but also in society as a whole.
The movie is beautifully shot by cinematographer Anders Nydam, and edited very well by Denniz Göl Bertelsen, while Olesen directs all the different actors with great care.
Note: A Matter of Trust has been playing the festival circuit since it premiered at Tribeca last year. So far, it has been released in cinemas in Denmark and The Netherlands, with possibly more to follow.