Once again I'm posting information about the new Danish film. This time, the XJW, who saw the movie, updated his original e-mail to me containing additional facts.
"TO VERDENER" / "WORLDS APART."
The following observations were made by Poul Bregninge after seeing the film, To Verdener/Worlds Apart. To those who do not recognize Poul's name, he wrote the Danish book, "Dommedag må vente" (Judgment Day Must Wait), published by Gyldendal in May 2006. In Chapter 24 of Poul's book can be found my personal story about how I discovered child abuse within the Watchtower organization and what followed afterward. (http://www.freeminds.org/women/barbdiscovery.htm)
Barbara
On January 22nd, my wife and I were at Nordisk Films Studies in Copenhagen where we saw the film, "TO VERDENER / "WORLDS APART," directed by Niels Arden Oplev,to be released in Denmark on February 22, 2008. While w atching the film, we experienced powerfully strong emotions because we were looking back into a world we had left 49-years ago. As the film progressed, we followed Sara's growing independence which finally ended with her disfellowshipping from the local congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. All the well-known and typical elements in the process of liberation were displayed. We saw the elders in the congregation try to convince Sara to come back to the religion and its belief in eternal life in a Utopian world after God's universal war, Armageddon, takes place. "Worlds Apart" is a very moving film which deserves to be seen all over the world. It is very dramatic although using a low tone in its presentation. Naturally, Birgit and I liked the film very much because of our past experiences within the Witness organization, but the opinions of the others present - amongst them journalists - were also very positive. However, it it important to remember that Sara and her film family are fictional characters. This is not a documentary film about real people. The producer was inspired to produce this film after reading an interview in a Danish newspaper in 2005 about similar events which had taken place in a young Witness girl's life. I was told he wanted to tell a story about a young girl who undertook to make a personal choice in her life despite some pretty grim consequences. Although this is the story about a young Witness girl, it is a film about the problems that can also develop in other fundamentalist religions when their young people defy the rules. This is a wonderful story, but also a cruel one. Sara, who grew up in a fanatical sect with a closed religious environment, chose for herself freedom and what she thought was a better way to pursue life, that is, with a young man she loved who was not a fellow Witness believer. Sara showed no doubts even though she knew she would be punished for crossing the line when she expressed her love. If she was to survive her "theocratic" family, there was no way back for her. It is Sara's love that carried her through and made her feel human.