As It Is in Heaven - Essay Example

? As It Is in Heaven Directed by Kay Pollak, As It Is in Heaven is a 2004 film that traces the life of Daniel Dareus, arenowned music conductor whose dream has been to sing to the people’s hearts. In this film, the conductor is attempting to recapture his lost glory through music, and it turns out that his rural home, Norrland, was the nature-designated place where such dream was to be achieved. The movie was nominated for best foreign language film in the 77th Hollywood academy awards. This essay is an analysis of family issues, individual freedom, and the society relation with members. Family issues In this film, the family issues are an experience of almost every character involved in the choir. At the beginning, the presence of the church environment gives an assumption that everything is going well in this society. It is not until every individual’s privacy is revealed that the viewer realizes that family issues are a society planning issues that has remained largely unresolved. When Daniel sought refuge in his home village, he is received by a church minister who hands him a bible. Daniel is used to capitalistic life in town, and he tries to shun social life as seen when he turned down the minister’s invitation to a diner. However, the pressure from the church choir and music in him is too high and he accepts to join and train the choir members. The armature singers use the music to placate their familial challenges. In their chapter seven article Massey and Denton (1993) start by quoting Pam Grier who analyzes that people are hopeless in the society because their daily lives are challenging, hence prompting them to go to some sort of entertainment. In this film, music is the outlet that the choir members chose to indulge in to release their live stresses. David teaches them how to sing as they listen to their hearts, how to perfect their vocals and how to cooperate and not compete in their common endeavors. This goal is of great importance because it symbolizes the way family institution should function in the society. It is a contrast of how the families in the movie have been operating and how women have been enduring their problems. For instance, Daniel is caught in a web of attention when several women from the choir start competing for his attention. His attention was caught by Lena, a young attractive girl in the choir. As their love grows, the personal problems of the other choir members confront him. This is a microcosmic example of the family issues in the society. For example, Inger the minister’s wife also secretly admires Daniels because she is sexually repressed. The woman is enduring a failed sexual relationship with her husband. This is a depiction of how the church has failed to plan family matters. The extreme of this irony is when the church minister becomes jealous when the choir starts succeeding. He is threatened by the unity and the zeal of the choir. He tries to shatter their dreams but he failed and this failure leads to his ultimate nervous breakdown. Daniel engages the choir members into lessons that liberate them, and the first person to be set free is the minister’s wife. Inger later goes to her husband and tells him that she no longer believes in sin. She claimed that their marriage is spoilt by the religion, which was brought to the community by outsiders. Gabriella is a highly talented singer in the choir, but her husband always batters her and the village is not concerned; everyone is minding his own business. It was Gabriella’s husband, Connie who schooled with Daniel and drove Daniel out of the village. Connie is later left by his wife and he blames Daniel and the choir for influencing his wife wrongly. He attacks and assaults Daniel, an act that sends him to jail. Individual freedom and the society relation with members The movie gives an excellent depiction of how individual freedom is compromized by the society members. At the beginning of the movie, the viewer meets Daniel who has already returned to his village after years of success in choreography. He is used to the urban freedom and he realizes that the village has not changed much (Bromley, 1977). The movie reminds the viewer of Daniel’s formative years when he was schooling in the village. He was bullied and forced out of school and finally out of the village. This relationship among society members is not development oriented and shows that something is amiss in the way sociality has planned its ethical concerns in relation to human rights and freedom. Gabriella is bullied and beaten up by her husband because of her engagement in choir. This shows the way the society, and especially men, are oriented to suppressing the freedom of women. On the other hand, the society is adamant and has no concern when she is beaten up. The members are living individualistic lives, and they have no social concern. Another experience of broken social fabric is the case of Tore. Tore is mentally challenged, which makes people in the village to shun him. Bullying is the worst part as even Holmfrid is constantly bullied by Arne. Daniel himself is a victim of society victimization and suppressed freedom. As a result, Daniel has developed a strange fear of not trusting anybody. The fear is slowly dissolved when he and Lena become intimate. She helps him understand living a balanced life for liberation is the choir. As they indulge in music that opens people’s hearts, their problems are solved. The gesture of the choir to accommodate persons from all manners, able, disabled, and straight and puritans rejected and dejected is a metaphor of a united society. This metaphor is actualized because it is in the village choir where Daniel’s lost dream is actualized. Significantly, Daniel is described as a person who had international recognition, but whose dream was shattered. The choir also liberates women like Inger from religious fetters and Gabriella from the world of family battery and male chauvinism. The choir breaks the boundaries of discrimination and emerges victorious. This is symbolic of how victory in the society can be achieved when people embrace each other’s limitation and challenges to move together in one spirit listening to their hearts without competing. The families of the choir members including the pastor’s family bring stress to life, but they discover the power of music that acts as their only conciliation. References Bromley, R. (1982). “Working in the Streets: Survival Strategy, Necessity or Unavoidable Evil?” (pp.160-181). In A. Gilbert, J. and Ramirez, R. (eds.). Urbanization in Contemporary Latin America. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Massey, D. & Denton, N. (1993). “Ghettos and Barrios” (pp. 154-175). In Jargowski's (1996) Poverty and Place. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Read More