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Zappa

1983 · 103 min

A quietly unsettling look at teenage cruelty and belonging, nostalgic yet painful, with a slow-building sense of dread.

Directed by
Bille August
Genres
Drama
Overview
Denmark, 1961. Bjørn, a middle-class boy in his early teens, wants to be accepted by Steen, a bullying peer of his with wealthy but freezingly cold parents. Bjørn's other good friend is Mulle, a cheerful and more childish working-class boy. All three seem friends at first, but gradually Steen starts pushing Mulle away while pulling the impressionable Bjørn with him towards more and more violence.

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Directed by
Bille August
Genres
Drama
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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • melancholicstrength 2 of 3
  • tensestrength 2 of 3
  • warmstrength 1 of 3
  • darkstrength 1 of 3
Pacing
measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • coming-of-age
  • identity
  • friendship
  • betrayal
  • class
Places
  • small town
  • school
  • home
Era
period
Audience
teen
Form
None
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language mild
  • Violence mild
  • Sex mild
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action2
Horror1
Humour3
Realism8
Romance1
Tension5
Darkness6
Complexity5
Emotional weight7

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Cast

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Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres
drama
Directed by
Bille August
Written by
Bille August, Bjarne Reuter
Starring
Adam Tønsberg, Morten Hoff, Peter Reichhardt, Lone Lindorff, Arne Hansen, Thomas Nielsen, Solbjørg Højfeldt, Bent Raahauge Jørgensen
Music
Bo Holten
Cinematography
Jan Weincke
Runtime
103 min
Country
Denmark
Languages
Danish

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