Nothing (4½ Stars)

This is the 29th film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

"Nothing" (in Danish "Intet") is based on a book written in 2010. It's recognised as one of the best books ever written in Danish, and it's compulsory reading in most Danish schools. The director claims that more than 75% of the Danish population have read the book.

The film begins on the first day of school for an eighth grade class (children aged 13 to 14). One of the boys, Pierre, walks out of class, because he says that nothing matters. Life is meaningless. Everyone is a copy of a copy, and everyone will die after a life without meaning. Pierre climbs a tree and says he'll remain in the tree until he dies.

Pierre's classmates want to persuade him to come down by showing him that life has meaning. Every member of the class promises to put whatever is worth the most to him on a heap of items for Pierre to look at. The children don't pick their own items, the other children tell them what to give, based on their opinions of what the other children's most valuable items are. It starts off harmlessly. Agnes puts her favourite sandals on the heap. Then it escalates. A Moslem boy has to put his prayer mat on the heap. A Christian boy has to steal the statue of Jesus from the church. Another boy has to dig up the coffin of his dead two-year-old brother to put it on the heap. A girl's dog has to be killed to put its head on the heap. Yet another boy who plays guitar has to cut off his finger and donate it to the heap.

Do Danish children really read such dark literature in school? The film has been praised as an accurate adaptation of the book. It's a fascinating nihilistic story about the meaning of life. I don't often want to read a book after watching a film. The last time was "The Life of Pi", eight years ago. Now I need to buy "Nothing". The only thing stopping me is that there's no Kindle edition of the book in English.