Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 2011


Lena (2011 film)

Buy Lena (2011 film) now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




{{Infobox film

| name = Lena

| image =

| caption = Official film poster

| director = Christophe Van Rompaey

| writer = Mieke de Jong

| starring =

| cinematography =

| editing = Nico Leunen

| music = The Ballroomquartet

| studio =

| distributor =

| released =

| country =

| language = Dutch

}}

'Lena' is 2011 Belgian drama written by Mieke de Jong and directed by Cristophe van Rompaey. It stars Emma Levie in the main role, with Niels Gomperts, Jeroen Willems, Agata Buzek and Lisa Smit in supporting roles. The film is about a lonely teenage girl Lena who gets into relationship with popular but unreliable Daan and is willing to do a lot to be loved and accepted.

The film was produced by Isabella Films, A Private View and Kazbek and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 12 September 2011. Director Cristophe van Rompaey won a Directors' Week Award and Emma Levie won the award for best actress in Fantasporto film festival and Les Arcs European Film Festival.

Plot



Lena is lonely teenage girl who lives with her mother in a small appartment. Her mother is Polish immigrant, barely speaking Dutch, who frequently belittles her for being overweight and lives double life - during the day she works as a bus driver, in the evening she leads the men into their appartment for a casual sex. Because of her looks, Lena is not popular among her peers. Her only escape from everyday life is work at daycare, line dancing with her selfish friend Hanneke, and casual and shallow sex with many boys who don't want to be seen in public with her, many of them not even asking for her name.

Things change when, while riding a motocycle, she gives ride to Daan, a boy her age who is apparently chased by the police. She drives him home and he asks for her phone number, something none has done before. They start dating and Daan brings her to his place. There, she is introduced to his widowed father Tom who is without feelings after his wife's death. After seeing her troubled relationship with her mother, Daan invites Lena to move to his place, despite her mother's pleas. Her life becomes normal, she finally finds her purpose, although something seems to be off with Daan. One day, she finds a gun in Daan's closet and becomes suspicious. Soon after that, two police officers come looking for Daan, telling her he is a suspect in a recent burglary, but he isn't home for any interrogation. After looking for him at school he said to be attending, she is told he has been dropped out some months ago. After confronting Daan with the information she has, he escapes to hide from the police and Lena breaks with him.

She goes home, but her mother doesn't let her in, as she has found herself a partner. After looking for help from Hanneke, who doesn't want to help her, Tom finds her and takes her home. After some time they get to know each other and Tom tells her he and Daan have a very tense relationship because he allowed him to be in charge after his wife's death. They soon start having an affair. One day Daan comes home and Lena then tries to help them make amends. After his promise he will become better, Lena and Daan start a relationship anew, but his father soon admits he is smitten by her. When talking to Daan, she admits her affair with Tom, causing Daan to confront him. During a quarrel Daan brings up his gun and shoots Tom dead. Lena escapes home to her mother when the police comes looking for her.

Cast



* Emma Levie as Lena

* Niels Gomperts as Daan

* Jeroen Willems as Tom, Daan's father

* Agata Buzek as Danka, Lena's mother

* Lisa Smit as Hanneke

References






Buy Lena (2011 film) now from Amazon

<-- Return to movies from 2011



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1110112835.