Watching: Are You Afraid?

Overview

This documentary examines a feature of Danish life in the late '60s and early '70s: the political commune. In a series of stiff and unrevealing interviews with members of the Kloevedal Commune, "Mao's Pleasure," director Carlssen seeks to discover why they have chosen to live communally. Turning the tables on the director, members of the commune also interview people who live ordinary, middle-class lives, ostensibly to find out why they chose their "lifestyles." Other footage concerns the Annisse Commune, a less radical organization which predates the Kloevedal Commune by decades. A highlight of the film is an interview with a very old woman who lives with and talks chiefly with her cats.