I was born in Denmark
I have my roots there
My roots go from there ...
... My world goes.
You, the Danish language
you are my mother's voice
sweetly blessed
reaching my heart.
You - the fresh Danish beach
Where ancient barrows
stand between the apple orchard and hop garden.
- You, I love ... - Mum?
Mum!
Didn't we think we had gypsy blood?
Well ...
Your father's family has always been very dark ...
Is there a photo album?
I remember one, that Sebastian and I always looked at.
Mum ...
I'm here.
Yes!
"Dearest Mother. Everything is fine at the front.
There have been difficult days to get through.
But both Laust and I ... "
Laust?
"... are fine, given the circumstances.
With love ... your son, Peter. "
Sofia and I were heading towards Soenderborg.
Not suspecting.
Not suspecting anything.
That Peter had discovered our deception. That Laust was dying.
That the war was not a picnic, but hell -
- I had volunteered to head towards with with my pregnant belly.
And now Sofia is also expecting a child.
After the withdrawal from Dannevirke, most people thought -
- that Dybboel could hold the enemy.
But when the Prussians began to wear down the Danish defence-
- the reality hit the Danish politicians once more.
However, still in vain.
It was a long way from Copenhagen to Dybboel.
We'll drive on to the marketplace. I'll ask about Peter and Laust after.
Move forward! Forward!
It's not a resting place. Come on, dammit!
- Move the the guns now! - Excuse me, sir.
My name is Ingeborg Kjoelhede. Can you help me?
Lieutenant Monrad at your service, Miss.
I am looking for ... my husband.
- Laust Jensen and his brother, Peter. - Which regiment and company?
I wrote letters to Company 8.
It is very difficult, Miss. The companies have two days on the redoubts.
Then two days of rest and then three days here.
- You'll have to wait here. - I need to see them.
Young Miss, this is not a place to visit.
This is a place to leave.
Get a move on with those guns! Forward! Forward!
Peter?
- Peter!
Come on, we're leaving!
- You dreamed about your brother. - I have no brother.
It's in the lungs. He's done for!
We must find Peter.
"Dear father,
Hope you are well.
I feel ...
I feel that I should be at home with you.
Where I'm sure I could be of much greater use.
Dad, I ought to be home ... with you. "
- Captain. - Yes.
We have a man out here, no one knows him.
- He has been asking for you. - For me?
Yes. It was a little suspicious. Also because he does not look like ...
Yes, he is not Danish.
Look at me.
Do you know him?
I will kill you.
- Shoot him. - We can't do that.
He is a spy.
There are some Prussians who know of me and my reputation.
It is quite obvious that this guy will kill me.
Shoot him.
With all due respect ... It's best we lock him up -
- And then await the auditor.
You refuse to execute an order, Sergeant?
I am helping you to make a decision within the rules.
Under these circumstances it is hard to keep a cool head.
Throw him in jail!
Enter!
General, the bombardment is, as you can hear, heavy -
- and is destroying our position. We must discuss the disengagement plan.
We must save the army without suffering significant and needless loss.
Mortensen, when were we awarding medals?
- Wasn't it now? - Yes, Sir. General.
We can talk later. There are some officers -
- who were very brave at Mysunde and they are waiting down there.
With all due respect, General, the Prussians are not waiting.
This is only the beginning.
- if we don't want to risk a bloodbath, we must do something now.
Du Plat.
The orders from Copenhagen are quite simple:
The heroes of Mysunde shall recieve medals. The press is there.
It strengthens morale.
-and Copenhagen wants to hear about heroes. Not defeat.
These are my orders, and a soldier follows orders.
Your Majesty...
The beat of the guns...
- You hear them too, don't you? - Definitely.
They say that sounds are like dreams. They reach into the soul.
That doesn't make sense, does it?
- You could say that. - What do you mean by that?
Well... For example, one could say -
- that major chords tend to relieve the soul.
Whereas minor chords do the opposite. And we don't know why.
It's just human nature -
- that minors belong to darkness, and majors to light.
- And what about the time? - Time?
Time! Yes...
Well, the march itself... which is my area -
- gives a sense of direction.
The right direction. It tells us -
- that we should all go in the same direction.
The right direction. Without discussion, without hesitation, without a doubt...
Great, Piefke.
I want you to go down into the trenches -
- that our soldiers are digging, beneath the Danish entrenchments.
I want you and your band to play for a few hours every day.
That will strengthen the men's morale and give them a goal.
Without hesitation. You music will irritate the Danes.
- Yes, Sir. - Thank you.
And if I may be allowed to add:
I totally agree. Music is more powerful than guns.
I don't think that's what I said.
If you had the choice, you wouldn't choose a flute over a howitzer.
Nobody is that stupid.
They are in the process of digging at least two trenches towards us.
It's going to hell.
We can't hold this position much longer!
- It is impossible. - Of course.
The 'impossible' is our task, as I understand the order from Copenhagen!
What the hell is that?
They're playing music.
You don't say, Alfred.
Do they think this is a party, or what?
Inge?
- Didrich! - Inge!
What are you doing here?
We are trying to find Laust and Peter.
It is important that we find them. You have to help me.
Inge, you shouldn't be here.
I just have to talk to Laust.
Why?
I'm carrying his child.
- You have to help me, Didrich. - Great.
That's wonderful.
Inge, the ...
Inge ...
You must be strong now!
Will you promise me that?
I'll be there for you with everything I've got
But you have to be brave. Can you do that?
Promise?
Peter and Laust are ... are dead.
Peter at Sankelmark and ...
And Laust, he died of the fever.
I did everything I could to save them.
They are dead, Inge.
I'm sorry.
I'm really sorry.
You are about to die, Laust.
They say that hearing is the first of the senses, you get ...
... and the last thing you lose.
So now you need to listen.
Inge was here.
To see you.
But I spared her seeing you in this state.
You'll understand that
I told her that ...
-that you are already dead.
The worst thing is, that you have made her pregnant.
And, Laust.
Inge, she will give birth to your child.
So as you lie here, dying...
... Inge is forced to walk around in the muddy trenches, alone -
- with your bastard kid hanging around her neck.
Unless, of course, some idiot -
- comes along and feels sorry for her.
Second Lieutenant Wilhelm reporting for duty, Colonel.
Do you know why you are in the Special Corps?
- I wouldn't know. - It is because you are an animal.
We need someone who can create havoc.
Someone who can bite the enemy in the neck. Can you do that?
Pardon.
Get the enemy to shit their pants.
- Yes, I think so. - Good.
Can you hear the music?
Who the hell wants to listen to this shit?
- It sounds like hell. - So we agree.
They play a couple of hours at dinner time and an hour after sunset.
Go to the enemy lines and kill the music.
Off you go!
Dinesen, 8th brigade? Peter Jensen?
- Dinesen, 8th Brigade? - No.
Dinesen, 8th Brigade?
- Dinesen! - Shh!
- Dinesen? - Shh!
We're going to kill the music.
Are you in?
Going there?
Yeah.
There is a clearing. Now we can run straight through.
Peter...
Should we take Alfred with us?
Come on.
Here, Alfred.
Alfred ... just stick behind me.
Yeah.
Your brother needs to see you.
- He's in the camp hospital.
- Have you killed anyone before? - Not in combat.
Have you been with a woman?
What? Have you?
Say it now, Peter.
I knew it.
I was afraid, I was the only one.
If we live through this, we'll share a hooker in Soenderborg.
- Will you promise me that? - Have you gone mad, Alfred?
Say it!
- Peter! - Yes, yes, yes. I promise!
He goes to the right side.
- I'm sorry. - Yes.
- We want to help. - What?
I can see that you are short of nurses.
- We can be of use here. - Use?
We are looking for my husband.
It makes no sense to be idle.
We can't just return home. We want to help.
- I do not use women here. - In Europe they use nurses.
For flower arranging and embroidery and poetry evenings.
How often do you wash the instruments? Don't you recognize that -
- infections can be limited, if the instruments are washed?
I wonder if it's not the enemy bullets that kill, but the lack of soap?
You really don't need any help?
Listen. You are young and your self-confidence is bordering on the impertinent.
Trust me. You haven't got the nerve, stamina or talent for this. Get out!
Imbecile! 400 Swedish women have helped at the front -
- But you and your kind are in denial...
Thousands of women would help here, help their men.
We are rejected, while they are bleeding to death, you big clown.
Is there no limit to your stupidity? No limit?!
You are crazy!
And you ought to know better.
Find them a few aprons.
Can you hear it, friends?
Can you hear it?
They are not playing music anymore!
- Alfred, you can't stand there. - They are not playing music anymore!
- Sing, lark, so everyone can hear you! - Alfred!
- Alfred, come down. - Alfred, you've been drinking too much.
Alfred, come down from there.
- Sing! Sing lark. - Alfred, please just shut the fuck up.
- Sing, so everyone can hear you. - Alfred, come down.
Louder, so that we can hear you!
Now play the fucking music!
Alfred! Alfred!
Fucking Prussians! Come and get me!
Sodomites! Come on! Take me!
Take me!
Andersen, we need more help.
What's in there?
It's nothing. They'll die anyway.
Now you will get well, Laust.
Come and help, dammit!
Come on! Get a doctor!
We need help over here! Help, Now!
Put the tourniquet on.
What are you doing, man?
Put the tourniquet on!
Take his head. What are you doing?
Haven't you learned to use a tourniquet, man? Get the wound clips.
- It's too late. - I want to go home.
- Yes.
I would like to go to Skagen.
Where is the boat, Mum?
I want to go home!
I can be home tomorrow.
Now closing my eyes
God the Father in the high
take custody of me!
From sin and death and danger
my angel keeps me
which led my feet today.
- Peter, are we going to drink? - I need to do something else.
What?
- Peter, what? - Something I promised Alfred.
What?
Were you ever in love?
If I 'was'..
I 'am'
What is she like?
Her figure ... is stunning..
And her attitude elegant.
The first time I saw her, I stood behind her.
She sensed that I was there.
I have often noticed -
- that if you stand in one place, watching a woman -
- where she can't possibly see that you're looking at her -
- she still knows you are there.
It's almost as if her fine feminine senses have felt your gaze.
She could do that.
Where is she now?
She is everywhere, Peter.
Just like a woman. She is everywhere.
They're bombing the city!
They are bombing Soenderborg. It makes no sense to stay at Dybboel.
The army must move to Als. Anything else is suicide!
Copenhagen won't like it.
Pardon?
I really don't think that Copenhagen will like it.
No, they will not like it.
But our men are just sitting, waiting to die. And now the civilians too.
We must evacuate!
"Therefore, the General Staff feels-
- forced ...
... to withdraw the Army ...
... to the relative safety of Als.
Signed, Gerlach."
"Dybboel must ... repeat -
- must be held -
- even if it should mean significant losses"
With due respect, General Gerlach -
- this decision is madness. Absolute madness.
What are they thinking over there?
That this is a theater show?
I suggest that we report the army is withdrawing and that we cut the connection.
An order is an order.
Let it be my decision. Sign off, General.
Then I can be your deputy. I'll take the court-martial!
What the hell are you talking about? I am not ill!
- Why are we here? - It's for Schleswig.
Well yes. Schleswig.
I could do without Schleswig right now.
Laust?
Holy shit, man. I thought you were dead. Johan, it's Laust.
There were so many who knew they would die.
But as always, it was the thought of what was to become of their loved ones -
- more than the idea of their own fate, that plagued them.
I can only remember it all as a strange daze.
Like one's memory after a drunken night.
Hours and days of grief -
- over what I thought was the loss of Laust and Peter.
The child, who kicked in my stomach.
The sight of the young wild eyes in the faces of the dead.
Amputations. Infected wounds.
The uproar, the crying and the screaming...
The flames of Soenderborg.
Dante's inferno.
Yes, we were in hell.
"We never imagined, in our wildest fantasies -
- that we were not even near hell yet.
The bombing, which continued, knocked the last vestiges of hope -
- out of our bodies."
I found something at home which I don't fully understand.
What?
- An old tablecloth. - A tablecloth?
With ancient letters and photos.
- A damask? - Some of the letters are from Peter.
From Peter?
In your home?
Particularly, a picture of a woman with children around her.
And a great man with a full beard.
She is very dark, and all the kids look like her.
I think this is my fourth great-grandmother and her husband.
What does he look like?
He doesn't look that tall -
- with sharp, intelligent features.
A fine mouth.
Sharp cheekbones.
Beautiful full beard.
- His eyes, they burn like.. - Peter.
Peter? Why is he with my fourth grandmother?
Oh my god!
What?
We are family.