FutuRéale Magazine

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is North America's largest documentary festival. Each year, the festival presents a selection of more than 100 cutting-edge documentaries from Canada and around the globe. Through its industry programmes, the Festival also provides a full range of professional development, market and networking opportunities for documentary professionals.

Vesterbro
Screening: Wednesday April 23@9:30pm Royal Theatre & Thursday April 24 @11:59pm Bloor
Reviewed By: Deepi Harish

Entering into an un-bashful, twenty something, wild, dramatic love affair between Julie and Martin is the story of Vesterbro. A fiery couple from Copenhagen so absorbed in one another that at times the two main characters mesh into one, and the love affair fluently moves between party A; the tangled twosome and party B; the camera. The acting is so natural that any person who has ever been in love can relate to a segment of this documentary; the fear, the excitement, the catastrophes, the passions on top of passions.

The story takes viewers on an emotional, untamed adventure of the everyday lives of Julie and Martin and their journey of migrating from Copenhagen to Kolding to New York to Mexico then back to their comfort zone in Denmark, disclosing their inner most insecurities to the camera along the way.

Director Michael Noer has done a swell job of fusing together zoomed shots of individual facial and mouth expressions with handheld camerawork and still portraits.

Thirty minutes into the documentary a collage of generic still shot photography of the fast paced future and any city’s metropolis are flaunted, giving viewers a minute to make judgment on what has been witnessed thus far.

The film is packed with genuine moments; from capturing a tear glide down Julie’s face during the time of crisis to seizing the moment of a flock of birds gracing the snowy grounds of a people-less park, such moments could easily be the inspiration for the Group of Seven to paint a masterpiece.

The unvarnished reality is that the notion of dependency is the undisputed theme carried on throughout the film which effortlessly turns into desperation. This documentary authentically compliments the popular saying “you complete me.”