ELECTION NIGHT is a clever film about racism. The film begins with a man meeting a friend at a bar. When the friend says on off-hand racist remark, the first man confronts him instead of sitting silently. While almost impossible to believe, the first man then realizes that the election is being held and he forgot to vote--and runs to the polls before they close. On the way, again and again, he gets in cabs where the drivers are total racist pigs and are amazed that he's offended--as if everyone of "us" is in agreement about "them". This is an interesting idea and didn't come off as too preachy.When he finally did arrive at the polling station, there was a very ironic little twist that made the film and made me think of the saying "no good deed goes unpunished". The only sour note to the film was the very last scene in the bar--it was really impossible to believe that this one incident at the poll could change such a good man so quickly. Still, it was a very clever and interesting film.By the way, this film is part of the CINEMA 16: European Shorts DVD. On this DVD are 16 shorts. Most aren't great, though because it contains THE MAN WITHOUT A HEAD, COPY SHOP, RABBIT and WASP, it's an amazing DVD for lovers of short films and well worth buying.

I enjoyed Election Night the first time I saw it and laughed out loud at times. It is a film I recommend to people and that I have watched again. However, a sober re-viewing of this film made my laughter stick in my throat. It is a provocative piece, with a message that perhaps the filmmakers themselves did not intend, and for that reason I recommend viewing, but do not endorse the message in Election Night.An Aid Agency worker, Peter, leaves a bar to try and reach the polling station to vote. His castigation of his friend and the barman in the opening scene reveal his humanitarian, multicultural leanings. His condemnation of racists is clear and concise.What follows is his quest to vote in the election, and like all quest tales, the valiant hero faces a series of ever-more difficult challenges to achieve his goal. Utlimately, as befits a tale based on a protagonist out to accomplish a mission, the final test is to identify and overcome a weakness in his own character. For Peter, it is the revelation that he is just as capable of racist sentiments as the next man. And this is where the film starts to veer off-course. Peter is punished for his weakness by a punch in the nose, delivered by a character who reveals the complexity of attitudes to race by his confused comments. I do not doubt that the reasons for taking the narrative in this direction are to do with fulfilling the structural demands of cinematic storytelling, and are not the result of the filmmakers wish to make an anti-liberal statement.However, the effect is one and the same. Humbled, defeated, Peter returns to the bar and symbolically, through his apathetic lies and rejection of foreign beer, 'converts' to the other side. Sure, this pathetic wretch toasting his Danishness at the end is funny, but it means the end note of the film is, 'Don't try to be tolerant, it isn't worth it and the recipients don't appreciate it anyway.'I don't think this is reading too much into the film. The co-opting of Peter to the racist side at the end means the film endorses (I am sure unintentionally) the views of Peter's bar friend at the beginning - that attempting to understand and sympathize with other cultures and peoples just isn't worth the bother. This is a film well worth watching, especially in culture studies classes as a primer for discussion. But try to think, as you watch, who you are laughing with, and who you are laughing at. And at what point do you cross the line?

It is election night in Denmark and the polls are close to closing. With a busy day behind him sending off blankets to war-torn countries, Peter has completely forgotten to vote and, being a very socially conscious citizen he sets out to try and get to the polls before they close. However he abandons his first taxi after he encounters racist views that he does not want to hear – but then he doesn't have a great deal of luck trying anything else.This is a great little short film that deals with a complex and difficult issue – racism, or rather the way we have of looking at people differently on the basis of their skin colour or ethnic origin. In a way I'm sure this film is more meaningful in Denmark than it is in other places because many films will capture the spirit of the nation as well as wider issues (many good British plays etc are very much set in the British experience) but I still got something from this despite not being a Dane! The film starts us off with a clear cut case of racism – few of us would support the taxi driver's views. However it then gets progressively more subtle and wide spread until Peter himself reveals himself to see others differently ('I doing it for you people' he tells the black employee). At this point we realize the point of the film – what is racism? What is acceptable forms of it and don't we all, regardless of colour, treat people a bit differently based on colour, dress, class etc?The film does not propose to answer these questions or offer solutions but rather just challenges us and leaves us to make our own minds up. In this way I appreciated it – it ends with a comic moment as Peter just slumps into accepting the world for what it is, but this is a mature way to leave it, not banging a drum but simply putting this situation out there and letting us see it for the complex issue that it is.A great short that is simple but very well written. The cast deliver their characters well but it is the steps down in behaviour that compares and contrasts 'racist' behaviour where it succeeds in showing us how complex the issue is and how wide spread it is, even if we don't see it we all do view others differently depending on their jobs, their race, their accent, their intelligence, their colour, their class, their clothes etc. That the film offers no solutions to this is not a failing – it is responsible and respectful.

The Oscar-winning Danish short-film of Kim Magnusson and Anders Thomas Jensen is their third short-film to be nominated to an Oscar. It is, as always, an ironic film about a very heavy subject. The Danish mentality is the keyword in this fantastic short-film. Don´t miss it for anything in the world.