Emma's Shadow (Skuggen af emma)

Emma is a twelve-year-old girl from a very wealthy family. She is very lonely and spends most of her time alone with the servants. The setting is 1932 Copenhagen, and the Charles Lindbergh story is as popular in Denmark as in America. I am very fascinated by Lindbergh, the flying ace who flew solo across the Atlantic and whose son was kidnapped a few years later and then killed. In my film, it is a newspaper clipping that gives Emma her idea to have herself kidnapped. The time period of this film is important and it gives me the opportunity to play the contrast between the classes. The class system was very apparent during that period and I have used light to differentiate the classes, depicting the world of the 'upper class' in a light and bright atmosphere, whereas the poor 'lower classes' are shown in a dark, dismal light.

Most of all, Emma's Shadow is a story I myself like and wanted to tell my children. It is a film for all ages, a study of human nature, of growth and change. (Kragh-Jacobsen)