A Stranger in the World – film og klassisk koncert

Encountering the sensory world of composer Magnar Åm and his autistic son, Sturla Pilskog has created a touching and artistic documentary – actually more of a natural philosophical journey – about distance and closeness between people. After the half-hour long film, we leave the theater at SMK and take a seat just around the corner on the marble staircase, where Magnar Åm’s compositions are brought to life by the chamber choir Musica and a cellist quartet from the Royal Danish Academy of Music. 

 

About the film:

 

Composer Magnar Åm wanders through a dripstone cave deep underground to compose a musical work. Once a week, a drop falls from the stalactite at the top onto the stalagmite at the bottom. Slowly, perhaps over millions of years, they grow together. From this time perspective, human life is mercifully short – but maybe you can still see life in the drop?  The film’s director Sturla Pilskog finds it difficult to understand the reality in which his son, who has autism, lives and acts. Through fragmented memories of his son’s challenged sensory life, he tries to find some kind of pattern. With the composer as a philosophical guide, the director tries to find a way to the center of the drop and in many ways find harmony in life. 

 

Thanks to the Foundation for Danish-Norwegian Cooperation for their support.