Many of the Danish films that have come out in recent years could be chastised for being excessively bleak. However, much like what the best of Iranian cinema has to offer, they represent viewpoints that arent normally considered, and they refuse to compromise their objectives. Per Flys award-winning The Inheritance (Arven) is one such film. It tackles various key issues such as social and familial responsibility, corporate politics, and most importantly, their effects on ones individuality. Christoffer (Ulrich Thomson, the brilliant Danish actor from The Celebration and Brothers) is a thriving restaurateur in Sweden who's living blissfully with his actress wife (Lisa Werlinder) until he receives the news that his father has died in Denmark, leaving him his nearly bankrupt steel factory. Now his overbearing mother (Ghita Norby) wants him to run the show much to the dismay of his wife, not to mention his brother-in-law who was part of the business. The Inheritance is the second of director Per Flys trilogy of films about the Danish social classes. His acclaimed debut feature, Bnken ("The Bench" [2001]), dealt with the concerns faced by the working class, and here Fly meticulously charts the struggles faced by a man whos been rich for generations as he heads this consuming task. The film's exteriors are formally elegant while a handheld DV and grainy stock is expertly employed for its interior sequences epitomizing Christoffers dilemmas. As the business gets back on its feet, his personal life deteriorates, ultimately resulting in what he suspected all along. There is a false note late in this otherwise remarkable film which won six Danish Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, but Ulrich Thomsens brilliant portrayal of man deteriorating from within renders it meaningless.

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THE INHERITANCE was recently released in the U.S. on DVD by Homevision. A Danish DVD with subs is also available.