Director Thomas Vinterberg’s most compelling works – Festen and the Oscar-nominated The Hunt – deal with fractured communities turning against an individual, with surprising dilemmas born from what first appear as straightforward moral quandaries. With The Commune (15 cert, 112 mins ★★★), he observes a collective approaching the precipice, nearing total downfall.
After moving into a huge inherited house, news anchor Anna (Trine Dyrholm) and university lecturer Erik (Ulrich Thomsen) drift towards midlife crisis. Their solution is to turn the property into a commune – already a precarious social dynamic – that see-saws to chaos when Erik invites his young lover to move in with them.
