Fantastic Fest Review: Holiday

Isabella Eklöf might be Denmark’s next big thing. With her debut film Holiday, she has constructed a film worth pondering – one that won’t always have the answers that lead toward a happy ending.

Billed as a “rape-revenge” movie by some, the latter of the phrase isn’t necessarily an aspect of the film. It’s a gritty tale about horrendous people, where nightmarish things happen to ugly people, daring you to feel empathy for characters you won’t necessarily like.

Nadim Carlsen’s crisp and polished cinematography in Holiday juxtaposes the scummy cast of characters. Lurking around a pearly white house, Sascha (Victoria Carmen Sonne) joins a drug lord (Lai Yde) and his closest friends and family for a vacation. They’re obnoxious, with little value for anything outside luxury items. Vanity clings to them, and with money comes a power people like this should not have.