SHORTA
★★★★
OUT 3 SEPTEMBER / CERT 15 / 108 MINS
DIRECTORS Anders Ølholm, Frederik Louis Hviid
CAST Jacob Lohmann, Simon Sears, Tarek Zayat
A kind of Danish Les Misérables meets Training Day, Shorta — Arabic for “police” — throws good cop Jens Høyer (Simon Sears) and racist cop Mike Andersen (Jacob Lohmann) into Copenhagen’s Svalegården ghetto, at boiling point following the death of an Arab teenager in custody. In exciting, tense, well-staged set-pieces, Høyer and Andersen are pursued through estates, high-rises and grocery stores, their journey becoming more challenging after they arrest Amos Al-Shami (Tarek Zayat) in a pointless stop and search. Filmmakers Anders Ølholm and Frederik Louis Hviid intersperse the action with quieter moments, giving Sears and especially Lohmann space to enrich potentially one-note lawmen. The film covers familiar ground, but does it with an élan and urgency that is absorbing.