Geekscape Goes to Sundance 2012: Teddy Bear

Teddy Bear is a darling Danish movie that is based on a short film called Dennis – a film school project of director Mads Matthiese that garnered over 3,200,000 views on YouTube*.  Teddy Bear is a well-acted, well-conceived film and takes the viewer on a gentle journey through the private, dysfunctional life of a single body builder, who is still living at home with his mother in Denmark.  Dennis, who is completely awkward with women, tries for his luck in Thailand, after his uncle comes back from his trip with a loving wife.  Unlike most foreign men who are interested in sex tourism, Dennis really wants to find a wife, and to begin living his own life separate from his incredibly controlling mother.

This is sort of a “quiet,” “paced” storytelling and is not for those who like quick paced American style films with lots of action and confrontations.  The beauty of this film is precisely in the gentle, non-confrontational, well-mannered nature of the main character Dennis Petersen, (incredibly played by real-life bodybuilder Kim Kold): a huge man, who eats a large protein breakfast and bench presses hunderds of kilos daily, yet has a kid-like kindness in his eyes when he smiles.  His mother, ½ his height and 1/3 his weight is masterfully played by Elsebeth Steentoft.  She is simultaneously able to project a frail persona, while being a painfully rude, un-supporting, and selfish mother, whose only object is to keep her son under her thumb, to avoid being lonely.  Their unhealthy relationship is evident in all the ways she tries to control him on a daily basis.

And so we follow Dennis to Thailand, as he tries to maintain his integrity and honor, and overcome his shy awkwardness while thrown into the midst of one of the craziest party towns on the planet.

Teddy Bear won the Best Director award for the World Dramatic Competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.