Kris lives with her partly disabled uncle in rural Denmark and together they run a small farm. In their quirky yet loving relationship, built upon daily routines, words aren’t necessary. Kris is the dominant workhorse and she has taken on a motherly and overprotecting role towards her uncle. When Kris saves a calf during a complicated birth, her interest in the veterinary field is reawakened. She develops a friendship with the chatty veterinarian Johannes and slowly experiences life outside the farm. As love crosses her path, and a possible life-changing question emerges.
The Nominees: Screenwriter/director Frelle Petersen and producer Marco Lorenzen
National Jury's motivation: In Uncle everything is small – not understood as insignificant, indifferent, trivial, or banal but as general, local, humble, and pure. Uncle sees the bigger picture in the small things. In the context of cinema, a young woman’s dreams of experiencing the world while feeling tied to the disabled and lonely uncle who brought her up is a situation that certainly belongs to the department of small things. However, Uncle hits upon the big feelings in one of life’s many small choices in a way that is incredibly pure, namely pure-heartedness. Using no movie stars, only amateurs, and speaking an obscure dialect on an ordinary farm in a forgotten corner of remote southern Jutland, director Frelle Petersen tells a story that has the power to tug at the heartstrings of the world.
National Jury: Per Juul Carlsen, Jacob Wendt Jensen, Eva Novrup Redvall