Shorta

Taking its name from the Arab word for "police", this Danish thriller tackles systemic racism and brutality among Copenhagen cops. After a young Arab man is injured in custody, upstanding officer Jens Hoyer (Simon Sears) is paired with the less-than-wholesome Mike Andersen (Jacob Lohmann) for an uneasy ride-along. But when the detained Arab man dies, the pair find themselves stranded in the city projects with violence roiling around them, and only a teenage detainee (Tarek Zayat)to help them escape. Cribbing from Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), La Haine (1995) and Training Day (2001), first-time directors Frederik Louis Hviid and Anders Olholm drop us straight into the action, with crisp cinematography and no-nonsense dialogue. Yet they also find time to explore each character's perspective. As tensions escalate and Hoyer edges closer to escape, we get a layered view of a situation that is too complicated to be solved by a simple shoot-out.