15 True crime

Fader, The, Dec, 2006 by Eric Ducker

For both the protagonist and the viewer, the films in the Pusher trilogy take endurance. Set in the Copenhagen underworld, each installment follows a criminal at the point when his poor career choice catches up with him. Using pseudo-realism techniques, the films show this community for what it really is: violent and unforgiving. The gangsters don't have clever nicknames or endearing personality quirks, nor do they have clever philosophies on life that they like to rattle off in monologues. And the violence isn't stylized or balletic, instead it has all the romantic allure of sloppily pounding raw meat. Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn made his feature debut with the first Pusher in 1996 and revisited supporting characters from the original for 2004's Pusher II: With Blood on my Hands and 2005's Pusher III: I'm the Angel of Death. Now the complete series will be released in the United States in a three disc DVD package, but to watch them all in a row, you kind of have to hate life.

ERIC DUCKER

www.pusher.nu