Censorship Woes

Yan and I watched I am Dina last night. I had warned him that the norwegian film, a psycho thriller had scenes of aggression and much nudity. Unfortunately, the dvd I found was a code 3 item and all the important scenes were CUT- leaving behind a rather ordinary almost lame film.

I am Dina is an award winning film about a little girl, Dina who accidentally caused the death of her beloved mother. At the same time, she lost her father's love. Overwhelmed with grief the father who could not bear the sight of his little girl, abandoned her. Dina was hidden and looked after by the household servants. She became unruly-wild, unable to speak or even read. Her only playmate is a stable boy, Tomas, played by Hans Matheson.

Some kind soul had downloaded the entire movie in Youtube, and having watched the full version I was disappointed with my "lesser" dvd. I have started to collect some of Hans works and I ordered The Virgin Queen -Anne Marie Duff on the amazon yesterday. It should arrive some time before mid July. A long wait but worth it since I could not get the miniseries in Singapore and I loved the Han's Earl of Essex, so much...too much. HAHAHA

The missing critical scenes in I am Dina are all the intimate ones. There's the wedding scene where her old husband Jakob (Gerard Depardieu) tried to force himself on her but was humiliated by her publicly as a "stallion". Then Dina showed him who is the boss by making aggressive love to him leaving him in tears. I think the old man cried because he had no idea that his young bride was who she was -DINA. He felt over-powered and feared her much.

When Dina was married to the Old Jakob, she brought along her playmate Tomas, the stable boy. Now Tomas was a sad lone figure, often seen with the horses. The character of Dina, because of what she went through as a child, was unable to handle the trauma of loss. The next important development was to show her sexual aggression. The victim, her familiar playmate since childhood-Tomas the stable boy.

There was this scene that after Dina lost her husband who died of gangrene complications, Dina initiated sex with Tomas and he succumbed eventually. She aggressively used him again when her lover, the Russian Leo left her. Watching these scenes make you understand why Maria Bonnevie, won the best actress awards. When Dina suffered another loss - the departure of her lover, she literally forced herself upon the helpless Tomas. She tore at his clothes and rode on him aggressively for a long time, too long perhaps until she came. The audience was presented with quite a sight of her heaving full breasts and really heavy panting and thrusting. Then the tender part: She pushed him away when he tried to show some affection post coitus. One can see both the bewildered and disgusted look on the actor playing Tomas. Dina had used him again!!!

Other noteworthy scenes are namely when Tomas helped Dina birth her child -probably his and how she would not say ONE word when he took courage to ask if the child was his. Then there was the whole beautiful scene where she slapped him and he insisted, defiantly this time, that she "clean up her mess"- the blood on his lips -OUCH.

Overall, the movie boasts of breath-taking Norwegian scenery with the mountains and fishing villages. Hans matheson's role may be small but it was not insignificant. His scenes, especially the intimate ones balances the otherwise dark and ghostly story- a rather disturbing one. To me, he's one of the best actors around, not a celebrity per se but a serious actor blest with a handsome face, perfect body and i believe plentiful great career opportunites ahead.