Jesper Thilo

A youth film set in the summer of 1945, when the war in Europe has finally ended. For 17-year-old Herbert and his schoolmate Allan, their regular hangout is the Munich Inn, where Leo Mathisen's orchestra plays. The orchestra's drummer, Spjæt, is Herbert's idol, while Allan is more interested in the cloakroom attendant Anita than in the music. Herbert lives alone with his mother, who is a pianist. He has a job as a delivery boy at a grocery store, but supplements his income by trading on the black market. The black market goods, which can be sold at the München Kroen, are obtained in exchange for things Herbert has stolen from his mother or the grocer. Eventually, he even sells his mother's grand piano. A black American officer, whom he has befriended, intervenes when the business starts to go too far.

From a working class coming-of-age novel, Morten Arnfred fashioned his feature film to recapture the feel, the sting, the pain, but also the spirit of solidarity of the 1950s in the metropolitan city of Copenhagen: at the center, young Johnny, helpless, hapless, happy, unhappy, going through the motions of growing up. Bodil awards: Best Film and Best Actor (Allan Olsen).