R

Denmark, 2010, 99 minutes, Colour.
Pilou Asbaek, Dulfi Al- Jabouri.
Directed by Tobias Lindholm and Michael Noer.

R is a prison film, a grim portrait of life in a Danish prison.

The R of the title can refer to the central character, Rune, played by Pilar Asbaek or to his friend in the prison Rashid, played by Dulfi Al- Jabouri.

The film opens with Rune going into prison, following the usual routines, rough, inspections by the police, the cell. He begins to meet the inmates, something of a loner at first. He is in for violent assault. He is pressurised by a friend of his victim to assault another prisoner which he does successfully and shrewdly. He is able to cover his tracks. He has some good aspects of his life, and this is seen in his obsessive cleaning of his room and other parts of the prison. However, learning of the power struggles within the prisoner group, he befriends a Middle Eastern prisoner, Rashid. When his grandmother brings him some chocolate eggs, he discovers a way of transmitting drugs through the sewage system. With Rashid, he begins to form a business, making contacts – until he is found out by the higher-ups.

After an angry outburst, he is put into isolation. When he comes out of this, there are further clashes – and he is tortured and, surprisingly, killed, fifteen minutes before the end of the film. He has fallen out with Rashid who enables the killers to attack Rune in the freezer room in the kitchen. It is only a matter of time before people turn on Rashid. He has the option to follow the pressures or to talk to the authorities. The film ends with him leaving jail.

There have been many prison films but this Danish style is straightforward, stark, often brutal and ugly. It was compared to Jacques Audiard’s film of the same year, an award winner in Cannes, Un Prophete. Un Prophete is a far more sophisticated film, covering many of the same issues, but with more subtlety, intense performances and a more developed screenplay.

1. The impact of prison films? The realism of life within the prisons? The ugliness, the power struggles, the violence? Death?

2. The realism of the prison setting? Arrival at the building, the overall impact of the exterior? The interior? The search rooms? The cells? The cell block? Kitchen, dining room, workplaces? The yard? The muted colour photography for effect? The musical score?

3. The title, for Rune, for Rashid?

4. The film principally about Rune? His age, background, his violent attack, imprisonment? His attitudes? The only contact, his grandmother? Her visit, the gift of the eggs? His presence in the cell, his interaction with other prisoners? Friendly? Unfriendly? The orders to attack the Albanian? The consequences? The boss? Rune and his plan with the drugs, testing out in the toilet, work with Rashid? The orders, the contacts, the sales? Others finding out? The boss’s intervening? The violent attacks, Rune and his being put by himself? His isolation, his protecting himself, the showers? His getting out, contact with Rashid, the clash with him? Going into the freezing room? His being attacked, tortured, his death? The suddenness of this episode before the end of the film?

5. Rashid, Middle Eastern background, the reason for his being in prison, the ethnic groups? Friendship with Rune? Their schemes for drugs, carrying them out? The pressures from other prisoners, the clash with Rune? The threats, the gangs in the prison, or the authorities? The final image?

6. The range of powers-that-be within the prisoners, their influence, ordering attacks, drug control? Murder?

7. The authorities, the guards, control, treatment of the prisoners?

8. The overall effect of this kind of immersion of an audience in prison life?