The Land of Short Sentences

Marie’s (Sofie Torp) life is turned completely upside down when her husband Rasmus (Thomas Hwan) takes a job at a small-town school. Reluctantly, she moves with him from bustling Copenhagen to the windswept and lonely West Jutland. While Rasmus settles in quickly, for Marie it’s a total culture shock. Time and again, she makes herself an outsider in the eyes of the locals. When she finally learns to listen more and talk less, she begins to understand that she needs the town just as much as the town needs her and her quirky newspaper column. In Denmark, the film adaptation of Stine Pilgaard’s bestseller “Meter per Second” was a huge success. It was particularly well-received because the film successfully translates the specific tone of the original—a mix of laconic humor, vicarious embarrassment, and existential sensitivity—into the cinematic medium. The film is less a classic comedy and more a quiet study of loneliness and “slowing down” in life. “We Are the New Ones” succeeds admirably in portraying social alienation, cultural misunderstandings, and the tension between city and countryside, with Sofie Torp’s funny, vulnerable, and deeply human portrayal of Marie forming the emotional center of the film.