I think Adam’s Apples might actually have been the first Danish movie I ever watched.

And honestly, it probably played a role in why I became so interested in Danish cinema afterwards. I knew almost nothing about it at the time, and then I watched this incredibly dark, ridiculous, but somehow also very heartwarming movie and basically thought:

Wait… are there more of these?

Apparently there were. A lot of them. And apparently Mads Mikkelsen was going to be in half of them. 🙂

The combination of characters alone is already enough. Adam is a neo-Nazi who is sent to a small church as part of his rehabilitation. The priest, Ivan, is almost absurdly optimistic and insists on seeing goodness everywhere. Then there is Khalid, an aggressive Saudi man with a particular interest in robbing gas stations, and Gunnar, who has quite a few problems of his own. Adam’s rehabilitation goal eventually becomes something wonderfully ordinary: bake an apple pie using the apples from the churchyard tree.

So basically, a neo-Nazi, an extremely optimistic priest, a gas-station robber and a very troubled alcoholic end up living around a church together.

An excellent combination. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

One of my favorite little scenes happens when Ivan walks into Adam’s room and sees the picture of Hitler on the wall.

Ivan: What a handsome man. Your father?
Adam: That’s Hitler.
Ivan: No, Hitler had a beard…

I don’t know why, but Mads Mikkelsen delivering this with complete seriousness makes it so much funnier.

But one special reason why I LOVE this movie is the Christian theology behind all of this.

The Book of Job becomes especially important. Ivan has gone through an almost ridiculous amount of suffering in his life. His wife died, his son is severely disabled, he has serious health problems himself, and yet he continues interpreting everything that happens to him as another test. Adam eventually uses the Book of Job against him, arguing that perhaps it is not the Devil testing Ivan at all. Perhaps God simply hates him.

And I think this is where the movie becomes much more interesting than just a very dark comedy.

Ivan’s faith sometimes looks admirable and sometimes almost completely insane. There is a point where his optimism becomes so extreme that it is difficult to tell whether I am watching genuine Christian faith or a man whose mind simply cannot accept reality anymore.

The movie even gives this a name: Ravashi Syndrome.

The doctor tells this completely absurd story about an Indian footballer who supposedly lost his feet in an accident but was in such extreme denial that his brain simply refused to acknowledge it, so he continued turning up to football practice.

With no feet.

Apparently the team was not very good. 😀

I love that scene because it is hilarious, but it also explains Ivan surprisingly well. His positivity is not just a cute personality trait. It is almost his way of surviving everything that has happened to him.

And somehow, despite neo-Nazis, violence, terminal illness, religious crises and an apple tree that seems personally determined to prevent a pie from being baked, Adam’s Apples still manages to feel incredibly warm to me.

Maybe that was my first introduction to the strange magic I later started associating with Danish cinema.

Very dark. Very weird. And somehow comforting.