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‘Emma’s Shadow’
By Rita Kempley
Washington Post Staff Writer
January 12, 1990
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"Emma's Shadow," a moody little Danish fairy tale, feels like Hans Christian Andersen film noir -- a case of "Once upon a time there was this little dame, see. ..."Line Kruse, a beguiling kiddie actor, plays the 11-year-old Emma, a princess of the Danish upper class who allies with a Swedish immigrant pauper in this 1930s fable. A dreadful brat, Emma learns niceness from Malthe (Borje Ahlstedt), a sewer worker who takes her into his hovel when she runs away from home. A lonely only child, she longs for the attentions of her parents -- a marcelled Danish Main Liner and a prominent businessman. But they have little time for the pesky towhead, who stages her own kidnapping when she overhears them discuss the Lindbergh baby's disappearance. "It must be terrible to lose your most precious possession," says her mother. So while the chauffeur is otherwise detained, Emma slips away into the poor section of Copenhagen, where she is succored by Malthe, a dumb, sweet beast taken in by her preposterous story. Borrowing a life history from a favorite aunt, she says she is being chased by the same Russian Bolsheviks who shot her nanny. "Actually they shot my whole family," she tells Malthe, an ex-convict with lice and the lowest possible self-esteem. Malthe, who learns some assertiveness from Emma, gives the girl more affection in a week than her supercilious parents have managed in a lifetime. Alas, a terrible fate seems ordained for Malthe, who believes the detectives searching for Emma are actually Bolsheviks. Ahlstedt, the fuzzy uncle of "Fanny and Alexander," achieves an almost mystical bond with his adolescent costar in this tense and involving drama of passages. Co-written and directed by Soeren Kragh-Jacobsen, "Emma's Shadow" won the Danish Oscar as well as a prize at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival. Aptly titled, it does follow you for a while. "Emma's Shadow" in Danish with subtitles, is not rated but is suitable for all ages.
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