Showing @ Odeon, Edinburgh, Mon 23 Jun & Cineworld, Edinburgh, Tue 24 Jun

Nils Malmros / Denmark / 2013 / 107 mins

Award-winning director Nils Malmros’ auto-biopic is a Rorschach test: for whom we feel sympathy and where we place blame will say as much about the viewer as about the characters.

Johannes (a chilly and composed Jakob Cedergren) is an acclaimed director who returns home to discover that his bipolar wife Signe (Helle Fagralid) has murdered their baby. The film traces their life together, Signe’s battles with mental illness and the remarkable support shown by her family and friends in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Sorrow and Joy is a film about redemption, mental illness, accountability, even about the nature of film-makers themselves, but above all it is about love. Specifically, a love that can only be experienced by two people who have shared their lowest ebb and survived together. Johannes’ behaviour towards his wife means he is complicit in the death of his daughter but the tenderness with which he absolves Signe of any guilt and accepts the burden of her actions is a moment of the purest compassion.

It is a sad reflection on the stigma surrounding mental health that many viewers will no doubt find Johannes’s mercy as unfathomable as Signe’s crime. Surely Malmros is the only director who could have made this unique testament to the remarkable healing powers of love and grace.

Showing as part of Edinburgh International Film Festival 2014