About

This poignant Danish comedy-drama stars Sofie Gråbøl, the actress who sparked a worldwide run on Faroe Island sweaters when she starred in The Killing. Here, she plays a very different character; Inger, a middle-aged woman with schizophrenia who has become institutionalised over the years in a care home, heavily medicated and watched over by her overprotective mother.

Her sister, Ellen and her husband take Inger, on an eight-day cultural coach trip to Paris where Inger lived as a young woman, hoping that a change of scene and an element of social interaction will benefit her, notwithstanding their mother's misgivings.

When the tour group introduce themselves to each other and Inger announces that she is schizophrenic, the sisters are faced with pity from some and discrimination from others, including an uptight teacher played by Søren Malling (previously seen at RFS in A Hijacking and A Royal Affair). As the trip proceeds, however, a number of incidents provide glimpses of the individual behind the mental illness. 

Rose was a highly personal undertaking for Niels Arden Oplev (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), the Danish director and screenwriter, as it is based on his own siblings' experience - one of whom is an institutionalised schizophrenic and the other her primary caregiver. The storyline was also inspired by events in their family situation, which may partly explain the touching realism and how the film balances sensitivity with humour, illustrating the mixture of love, guilt, impatience and embarrassment that can be felt when a family member is neurodivergent or has a mental illness. 

There are almost 700,000 people with schizophrenia in the UK alone - it is not a very unusual condition, but one that is poorly understood. Rose is a story about understanding a complicated, often misunderstood mental health condition and, more importantly, the person behind it and stigma they suffer.

Tickets:
Adults: £5; full-time students: £3
Free to RFS members.

Booking:
60 non-member tickets can be purchased in advance from The Exchange's Box Office: online at http://exchangetwickenham.co.uk/events, by telephone 020 8240 2399 or in person. Early pre-booking via The Exchange is strongly recommended. Any non-member tickets available on the night of screenings can be purchased from The Exchange's box office on the ground floor.

For further information on RFS and the programme of films, please visit
http://www.richmondfilmsoc.org.uk