Søren Kragh-Jacobsen

Danish filmmaker Soren Kragh-Jacobsen studied engineering, then went to the Prague film school FAMU and specialized in documentaries. Kragh-Jacobsen worked for Danish Radio in 1972, where he was the head of children's programs from 1973-74 and the commissioning editor of youth programs for Danish television from 1975-76. He directed television films and serials before directing his first film, Vil duse min Smukke Navle? (#Do you Wanna See My Beautiful Navel?) in 1977. The film, considered a modern classic, defined the concept of the "youth film" as "entertainment with content." Kragh-Jacobsen has been making feature films ever since, winning numerous awards at home and abroad, including several Danish Academy Awards for Best Film and international honors like the UNICEF prize for Best Children's Film at the 1982 Berlin Film Festival for Gummitarzan (#Rubber Tarzan). Along with two other Danish directors, Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, Soren Kragh-Jacobsen follows the rules of Dogma 95, commandments of filmmaking such as mandatory use of handheld cameras, a ban on artificial lighting and props, and insistence on a plot that takes place here and now without superficial action by way of guns or murders. Kragh-Jacobsen's Mifune was labeled "Dogma III" after The Idiots of Lars von Trier and The Celebration of Vinterberg, and it won the Jury Grand Prix, Silver Berlin Bear at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival in 1999. Kragh-Jacobsen is also a songwriter; his album Hinkeruder pa Mootorvejen (^Hopscotch on the Motorway) has achieved classic and cult status in Denmark.

~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide