The Commune

Though set in the 1970s - a period now synonymous with egregious sexism and Olympic levels of smoking, both of which are covered here - this intimate drama isn't a retroactive critique of its time. Instead, though boasting a populous cast who move in with architectural lecturer Erik (Ulrich Thomsen) and his TV presenter wife Anna (Trine Dyrholm) to share the costs of his inherited mansion house, The Commune is a poignant, bittersweet study of a marriage in decline from director Thomas Vinterberg (Festen). The idea is Anna's, hoping to bring some excitement into her pleasant but humdrum life, but when Erik falls in love with one of his female students and brings her home, she gets more than she bargained for. In other hands, this could easily be a pious period piece, but this isn't the story of a social experiment gone wrong. On the contrary, the commune itself seems to thrive, serving as a Greek chorus of sorts as Erik and Anna - both beautifully portrayed by Thomsen and Dyrholm - wilfully sabotage their suburban utopia.