Truth vs. lies. Dreams vs. back-to-earth reality. Romantisation vs. real life. A new masterpiece by Peter Christensen and co, famously known for their first movie A Backyard in Nowhere!
Only the River Knows is again a non-conventional fly-fishing movie, mixing up a real story, some awesome NZ brown trout catches, and a good dosis of humour and self-irony.
Technically, the movie is superb, with some spectacular close-up shots of insects, great underwater images, and very-well set up scenes. The movie has some “danish Dogma” style over it, when the filming of the real Rolf Nylinder following Lars Lenth’s tracks is done with the camera “on the shoulder”. This style contrasts with the images of the young Lars Lenth (played beautifully by skilled dry-fly fisherman Mikkel Poppelhøj), which are taken with a very steady camera.
On the content side, the movie is not your traditional fly-fishing movie: it does not show a whole lot of fish porn (but there are some true lunkers caught), but instead catches the spirit, frustrations, anger, and invincibility feelings that a dry-fly fisherman could be the victim of when stalking these large NZ brown trout! Rolf is very convincing and funny in his quest of his hero Lars Lenth… until he meets him in person on a surfing spot in Australia.
So now you know what your next steps are: first check our the trailer, then get your own copy of the movie!