Heartbound
(Hjertelandet)
Year: 2018
Country:
DENMARK, NETHERLANDS, SWEDEN, THAILAND
Language:
Danish, Thai, Lao, English
Run Time:
91 minutes
Over 900 Thai women currently live in the Jutland region of Denmark. A quarter century ago, there was only one. Her name is Sommai, a former sex worker from Thailand. Neils met her there on a sex-tourism trip and brought her back to Denmark as his wife. Throughout their marriage, Sommai has helped women from her village escape the sex trade and immigrate to Denmark to find Danish husbands. Filmed over a period of ten years, HEARTBOUND follows Sommai and Neils and other couples as they struggle to adjust while getting more young women out of Thailand. Underneath the odd humor and genuine charm of this documentary beats a heart of grim reality. HEARTBOUND lets us experience both cultures in all their light and darkness, showing these women’s determination to survive and protect their families by any means available. And maybe even find true love. Life is the strangest damned thing, and HEARTBOUND is a fascinating and unsettling peek into one of its oddest little corners. (In English, Danish, Thai, and Lao with subtitles) —C.R.
CIFF43 Screenings
Wednesday, April 03, 2019 at 4:05 PM
Thursday, April 04, 2019 at 9:00 PM
Sidebars
Nordic Adventures
Pan-Asian Cinema
Race Relations
Strangers in a Strange Land
Women of the World
Competitions
Ad Hoc Docs Competition
Reel Women Direct Award for Excellence in Directing by a Woman
Directors
Janus Metz, Sine Plambech
Janus Metz holds a master’s degree in visual anthropology, and his body of work includes shorts, art films, music videos, feature films, and TV series. He has also conceptualized and consulted a number of documentaries and documentary series for broadcast and theatrical distribution.
Sine Plambech is a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) and a previous research fellow at Columbia University in New York. With 15 years of professional experience in international migration, human trafficking, sex work research, socio-cultural and gender analysis, she has worked as researcher, lecturer, and consultant at various institutes of higher learning, the UN, and other public institutions in Denmark and abroad.
Filmography
HEARTBOUND (2018)
Producers
Lise Lense-Møller, Henrik Veileborg, Katja Draaijer, Frank Hoeve, Fredrik Lange, Simon Perry
Cinematography
Henrik Bohn Ipsen
Editing
Marion Seraina Tuor, Søren Ebbe
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