Rune Pedersen is a new inmate in a tough Danish prison serving a two-year sentence. He's threatened by the brutal inmates and the harsh guards. He becomes the lowest member of the white gang. He works out a way to smuggle into the prison with the help of Muslim Rashid. He starts to get more luxury from his gang. Then he gets squeezed by the ruthless Bazhir.It's another tough prison movie of drugs, brutality, and racial division from Europe. It is heartless, ugly, and relentless. There is a change in protagonist from Rune to Rashid in the last act. It's a place where brutality works and the monsters rule.

Very nice film that really shows how the life in prison can be. Many of the prisoners are real bad guys, and some of them have actually been to prison in the very same place that the movie is shot before the prison closed in 2006.Also the main correctional officer Kim, is a real officer that actually used to work in the very same prison, and is now working in Denmarks newest high security prison that opened in October 2006.The movie shows a very harsh environment, just the way it actually was. When you watch it you get a real feeling of what it would be like to be in prison.Today the old prison is operating as a museum and many parts of the building has been left untouched since the last inmates were moved to the new prison.

I first have to say that i'm not a professional critic. It is very hard for me to find the right words to describe any form of art.43 is my age and maybe i have seen many movies in my life. The movies i saw the day before 'R' were 'The good, the bad, the weird' and 'I saw the devil'. The first was very good fun and the latter from the same director gave me a feeling of: I don't want to witness this. I'm getting to old for this kind of excitement.So with that feeling in mind I red the summary of 'R'. I had also seen 'un prophete' (great movie btw). Comparisons here. Masterpiece there. etc etc. I had to see it.The feeling of not want to witness this stayed until the opening scenes with the shady music, and Rune going up the stairs. And stayed with me until the end. After seeing this movie a week ago I still want to cry. I now realise that the director bathed me 99 minutes in powerlessness. This movie literally gave me, besides a sadness that stretches and stretches, a genuine fear for the prison system in my own socially secured country.Musically this is a movie that won't disappear in the shadows of more stylistic films like 'The deer hunter', 'Once upon a time in the west' and more recently 'There will be blood'. All with their masterpiece defining music scores. In the prison the camera captures the non existing distance of stares: of guards, inmates, grandmothers, Rashid and Rune. And what this did to me emotionally, was something i never experienced so profound before. A movie that makes your heart cry is one thing, but to go beyond that and mix the acting with this kind of realism is very special.The last fifteen minutes with Rashid played with my sympathy for the main character and was a big switch but made also clear that the story doesn't stop. And with that last zoom out the fridge door closes again. Can you compare Radiohead with The Beatles. 'R' is in my opinion emotionally in a league of it's own. But keep in mind my age. Maybe i'm just approaching a midlife crisis where crying gets easier, and tears just trouble my judgement.

This film is compared to un prophete, i understand why, but is is right to do that. I saw both movies on the same day at the international film festival in Rotterdam and R Rocked me and the audience really out of our chair. In fact it was the first movie where during the Q and A with the director nobody left the space. The reason i don't want to compare both movies is also that because i saw them on the same day. After this stunning, violent roller-coaster watching the long une prophete is not easy and won't be honoust towards une prophete.. But nevertheless this film took me fully, with amateurs and old inmates in roles, it is breathtaking, raw, dark and intense. Nothing is too much, nothing is too long, nothing is to thin, its a fantastic movie who deserves a big audience. For those who are interested in the rates i gave to Une Prophete, it's an 8, but i still want to see both movies again, but not on the same day anymore. What a ride it was and thank you for producing this masterpiece, which is in my all time top 10 whatever other people think of it