Screened as part of NZIFF 2018

The Guilty 2018

Den skyldige

Directed by Gustav Möller

A suspended police officer assigned to dispatcher duty is caught in a web of intrigue in this pulsating Danish thriller, jam-packed with mystery and suspense despite never leaving a cramped emergency call centre.

Denmark In Danish and English with English subtitles
88 minutes CinemaScope/DCP

Rent

Director

Producer

Lina Flint

Screenplay

Emil Nygaard Albertsen
,
Gustav Möller

Photography

Jasper Spanning

Editor

Carla Luffe

Production designer

Gustav Pontoppidan

Music

Carl Coleman
,
Caspar Hesselager

With

Jakob Cedergren (Asger Holm)
,
Jessica Dinnage (Iben)
,
Johan Olsen (Michael)
,
Omar Shargawi (Rashid)
,
Katinka Evers-Jahnsen (Mathilde)

Festivals

Sundance
,
Rotterdam
,
New Directors/New Films 2018

Awards

Audience Award
,
Sundance Film Festival & Rotterdam Film Festival 2018

This innovative debut from Danish filmmaker Gustav Möller has racked up audience awards from the Sundance and Rotterdam film festivals, delivering a tension-packed crime drama without ever leaving the claustrophobic confines of an emergency call centre. 

Police officer Asger Holm has been suspended from active duty and assigned to a desk job as an emergency dispatcher while he awaits an upcoming court case that could have serious ramifications for his future. A frustratingly mundane shift dealing with abusive drunks and ripped-off johns is suddenly upended when he receives a panicked call from an abducted woman, who is soon cut off. With the clock ticking, the short-fused Asger decides to ignore bureaucratic processes and take matters into his own hands. Piecing together clues with little more than a phone and a headset at his disposal, the more he finds out the more the mystery deepens. Are things really as they seem? — MM

“A twisty crime thriller that’s every bit as pulse-pounding and involving as its action-oriented, adrenaline-soaked counterparts… Gustav Möller masterfully ratchets up tension without the benefit of the usual visual aids, forcing viewers to dust off their imaginations and put them to work with chillingly effective results.” — Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter