Speak Up! It's So Dark

SPEAK UP! is a striking and stylish drama about the relationship between a fascist punk and his Jewish therapist. Soren's neo-Nazi world of booze, heavy metal, and assaults on "foreigners" (Jews, Arabs, Blacks, Reds, and Gays) is seen close up in explosive and revealing psychoanalytic sessions. Jacob's involvement with his client is not solely motivated by professional concerns - his own relatives were killed in Auschwitz and he is obsessively driven to understand and influence Soren. In a brisk montage of scenes propelled by first-rate acting, both of the characters express deeply rooted needs: Soren's impulse to prevent his own disintegration and Jacob's desire to heal the wounds of the past. Director Osten brilliantly defines the new politics of Europe in psychological terms.