Sylvester Byder and Jacob Hauberg Lohman in a scene from Turned.
LOS ANGELES, CA (LA ELEMENTS) 1/19/2021 –Turned opens with Kasper, (Sylvester Byder), a young college student who is sitting alone in his car late at night. Trapped inside the car with him is a moth, desperately fluttering close to the dome light. We see Kasper reach out and seize the moth with his hands, examining it closely. The movie then cuts to daylight where Kasper is in class studying another moth under a microscope while his instructor notes, “With its auditory organs the moth can perform evading movements in the dark. While navigating very well in darkness, the moth does terribly in the light.”
There is a lot of darkness that Kasper himself must navigate in Turned, a live action short film written and directed by Academy Award winner, (Helium), Anders Walter. A soft-spoken young man who is passionate about his studies and yet races cars mostly because that is what his father wants, we soon discover that Kasper is living a life of despair. It’s especially interesting that in the beginning the tone and pacing of Turned is much like a horror movie, because there is indeed a monster in Turned-Kasper’s alcoholic father, Michael (Jacob Hauberg Lohman). It is in several flashbacks where we discover that this patriarch literally rules his family with an iron fist.
Nonetheless, Kasper thrives. He thrives in the sense that a successful career as a race car driver is his for the taking, if that is what he truly wants. He also thrives in that the brutality of his father has not broken him down. At least not yet.
It’s in his science class where Kasper meets Veronika (Clara Rosager) and falls deeply in love, setting him at a crossroads in life: Should he continue devoting his life to race car driving and in the process fulfill the wishes of his father? That would certainly be the easy choice since that is what he is used to. Or should he venture into the unknown? Should he abandon race car driving altogether for the chance to start a new life with someone he loves?
Either choice leaves Kasper to reckon with his father whose obsession with his son’s racing career borders on the pathological. Nowhere is this more evident than the look of contempt in Michael’s otherwise dead eyes when Kasper finally musters up the courage to dare suggest that he might wish to do something different with his life.
While I would have liked to have learned more about Lisbeth, Kasper’s mother, this short film smoothly powers towards its surprising conclusion in most part due to the insightful performances of the lead and supporting actors.
Veronika doesn’t want to give up on Kasper even when he appears to be pushing her away. Clara Rosager’s performance lets you understand that she hopes by holding on a little bit longer, there might be something beautiful waiting for the both of them.
Sylvester Byder as Kasper has a number of powerful moments in Turned. One of the most memorable is also one of the most uncomfortable: watching him try to keep from crumbling during a confrontation with his father.
Jacob Lohman rises above the temptation to play Michael as a mere brute. What’s more terrifying than a monster? How about one who understands you all too well? It’s an especially shattering moment when Michael, cognizant of the trauma that Kasper has suffered from seeing his mother brutalized says, “You need to understand that you’re responsible too.”
But Kasper understands his father just as well. Well enough to realize that he will need the courage to do the unimaginable if he is to have any chance of happiness. Will he though? It speaks to the impression that Turned makes on the viewer that we need to find out.
Turned
Director Anders Walter
Writer Anders Walter
Executive Producers Henrik Appel, Tivi Magnusson
Musical Score Rasmus Walter, Hansen
Cinematographer Rasmus Heise
In Danish with English subtitles
20:01 minutes
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