{ "id": "ep2xdhx08s", "slug": "the-commune", "title": "The Commune", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": 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culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Commune (Kollektivet) is a 2016 Danish drama by Thomas Vinterberg, adapted from his stage play about his commune childhood, starring Ulrich Thomsen and Trine Dyrholm, who won the 2016 Berlin Silver Bear for Best Actress.", "snippet": "The Commune (Kollektivet) is a 2016 Danish drama by Thomas Vinterberg, adapted from his stage play about his commune childhood, starring Ulrich Thomsen and Trine Dyrholm, who won the 2016 Berlin Silver Bear for Best Actress.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2015-and-2016.yr-2016", "markdown": "# The Commune\n\n**The Commune** (Danish: *Kollektivet*) is a 2016 Danish drama film directed by [Thomas Vinterberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/thomas-vinterberg) about an academic couple who turn an inherited Copenhagen-area house into a commune in the mid-1970s, and whose marriage collapses as the experiment proceeds. It was written by Vinterberg with Tobias Lindholm, adapted from Vinterberg's own stage play, and stars Ulrich Thomsen as Erik and [Trine Dyrholm](https://www.edgepedia.org/trine-dyrholm) as Anna.[1](https://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/films/the-commune/) • [2](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jul/17/thomas-vinterberg-interview-the-commune-kollektivet-brexit) The film competed for the [Golden Bear](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-bear) at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival, where Dyrholm won the Silver Bear for Best Actress.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3082854/awards/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | *Kollektivet* (Danish)[4](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/297042/) |\n| Director and screenwriters | Thomas Vinterberg; screenplay by Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm[5](https://fest.afi.com/2016/world-cinema-2016/the-commune-kollektivet/) |\n| Production | Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands; 111 minutes; produced by Sisse Graum Jørgensen and Morten Kaufmann[4](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/297042/) • [5](https://fest.afi.com/2016/world-cinema-2016/the-commune-kollektivet/) |\n| Principal cast | Trine Dyrholm (Anna), Ulrich Thomsen (Erik), Helene Reingaard Neumann (Emma), Martha Sofie Wallstrøm Hansen (Freja)[4](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/297042/) |\n| Release | Denmark 14 January 2016; United Kingdom 29 July 2016[4](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/297042/) • [1](https://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/films/the-commune/) |\n| Awards | Silver Bear for Best Actress (Trine Dyrholm), Berlinale 2016; Golden Bear nomination for Vinterberg[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3082854/awards/) |\n| Reception | Metascore 60; Rotten Tomatoes 71% from 92 reviews; IMDb 6.4[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_commune_2017) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-commune/critic-reviews/) |\n| Worldwide gross | $4,410,339[8](https://www.kinoafisha.info/en/movies/8322826/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and themes\n\nThe story is set in Copenhagen in the mid-1970s. Erik, a university architecture lecturer, inherits his late father's large house north of the city and wants to sell it; his wife Anna, a television news reader, proposes instead that they invite friends to move in and share the space, both to ease the financial burden and to revive a marriage she admits has grown stale.[9](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/commune-first-look) • [10](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jul/31/commune-review-thomas-vinterberg) The couple live there with their teenage daughter Freja, and the early phase of communal life is warm and exuberant, with shared meals, nude swims, and house meetings in which members vote on decisions.[11](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/26310/the-commune) • [2](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jul/17/thomas-vinterberg-interview-the-commune-kollektivet-brexit)\n\nThe experiment fractures when Erik begins an affair with Emma, one of his students, who then moves into the house as his partner under the commune's ethos of tolerance. Anna finds herself isolated within her own community, and her breakdown is the film's emotional center.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jul/31/commune-review-thomas-vinterberg) • [12](https://www.iffmh.de/festival/programme/films/the-commune/index_eng.html) Reviewers repeatedly noted that the commune functions less as the subject than as the setting for a marriage drama: Time Out's Tom Huddleston called the title \"just a tiny bit misleading,\" describing the commune as \"little more than a colourful backdrop\" to the story of Erik and Anna discovering how different their needs are.[13](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-commune)\n\nVinterberg described the film's themes as the loss of innocence and love, and said it is at heart a coming-of-age story about a young girl watching her parents' marriage implode in front of a group of friends.[14](https://nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/news/stories/vinterberg-commune-about-loss-innocence-and-love) Geoff Andrew, writing in *Sight and Sound*, praised the film for resisting the temptation to dismiss the 1970s commune experiment as naive or doomed, suggesting instead that many participants found it rewardingly supportive and worthwhile.[9](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/commune-first-look)\n\n## Origins and production\n\n**Autobiographical roots.** Vinterberg grew up in a commune from the age of seven until he was 19, and stayed there even when his parents divorced. He has described the period as \"a crazy, warm and fantastic time\" and called the film \"a love declaration to that time.\"[2](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jul/17/thomas-vinterberg-interview-the-commune-kollektivet-brexit) • [11](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/26310/the-commune) In his real childhood commune, the number of residents fluctuated between 11 and 16, drawn from a wider circle of around 50 people, and six of the 32 houses on his street were communes.[15](https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2022932/thomas-vinterberg-new-film-commune-and-his-own-communal-childhood?module=inline&pgtype=others) He has stressed that the film is fiction rather than memoir: \"I guess this is based on a true feeling rather than on a true story,\" and improvisation during the play's development made the material progressively less autobiographical.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jul/17/thomas-vinterberg-interview-the-commune-kollektivet-brexit)\n\n**From stage to screen.** The project began when Matthias Hartmann, head of the [Burgtheater](https://www.edgepedia.org/burgtheater) in Vienna, invited Vinterberg to try his dramatic material on stage; the play *Kollektivet* was a success, and Vinterberg decided to film it.[14](https://nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/news/stories/vinterberg-commune-about-loss-innocence-and-love) The stage version was confined to one room, while the film travels with the characters to their various worlds; some dialogues carried over almost unchanged from the play, where they had been improvised.[14](https://nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/news/stories/vinterberg-commune-about-loss-innocence-and-love) Vinterberg reunited with Dyrholm and Thomsen 17 years after *Festen* (1998), in which both had appeared.[14](https://nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/news/stories/vinterberg-commune-about-loss-innocence-and-love) • [9](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/commune-first-look)\n\nThe film was produced by Zentropa Entertainments with Zentropa International Sweden and Topkapi Films, backed by Film i Väst and the national film funds of Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands, with Jesper Tøffner as cinematographer and Fons Merkies composing the music.[4](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/297042/) • [5](https://fest.afi.com/2016/world-cinema-2016/the-commune-kollektivet/)\n\n## Reception\n\nThe film premiered in Danish cinemas on 14 January 2016, ahead of its screening in official competition at the Berlinale.[14](https://nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/news/stories/vinterberg-commune-about-loss-innocence-and-love) It went on to a staggered international release, reaching the United Kingdom on 29 July 2016 and France on 18 January 2017.[1](https://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/films/the-commune/) • [8](https://www.kinoafisha.info/en/movies/8322826/)\n\nCritical response was mixed to positive. On Metacritic it scored 60, with 10 of 22 critic reviews positive and 12 mixed or negative.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-commune/critic-reviews/) Rotten Tomatoes recorded a 71% Tomatometer from 92 reviews, with the site's critics consensus stating that the film \"may not stand with Thomas Vinterberg's greatest work, but the end results remain thought-provoking and overall absorbing.\"[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_commune_2017) Praise concentrated on Dyrholm's performance: the *Washington Post* wrote that she \"movingly captures the struggles of a middle-aged career woman who revels in the new freedoms of the 1970s, while ultimately falling victim to them,\"[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-commune/critic-reviews/) and the *Christian Science Monitor* called her \"the best, the only, reason to check out The Commune.\"[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-commune/critic-reviews/) Recurring criticisms included sentimentality in the final act, a heavily signposted tragedy that some critics found manipulative, and supporting characters who recede once the love triangle takes over.[13](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-commune) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-commune/critic-reviews/)\n\nThe film grossed $4,410,339 worldwide.[8](https://www.kinoafisha.info/en/movies/8322826/)\n\n## Awards\n\nAt the 2016 [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival), Dyrholm won the Silver Bear for Best Actress and Vinterberg was nominated for the Golden Bear.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3082854/awards/) The film accumulated 6 wins and 21 nominations overall, including Bodil Award wins for Dyrholm as Best Actress and nominations for Best Film, Best Actor for Thomsen, and supporting acting nominations for Martha Sofie Wallstrøm Hansen and Lars Ranthe.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3082854/awards/)\n\n## Context: Danish communal living\n\nThe film draws on a real Danish phenomenon. Organized collective living has a long tradition in northern Europe, and during the 1970s communal housing became established in Denmark as *bofællesskaber*, with parallel movements in the Netherlands (*centraal wonen*) and Sweden (*kollektivhuser*).[16](https://www.gemeenschappelijkwonen.nl/icsa/2001conference/ICSA_eBook.pdf) Danish communes of the 1960s and 1970s were typically middle-class and non-sectarian, with most members keeping private quarters and sharing resources; a scholarly study of British and Danish communes of the early 1970s concluded that their egalitarian principles of resource-sharing, gender equality, and avoidance of hierarchies were broadly achieved, even though the movement did not realize its more ambitious goal of undermining the bourgeois family.[16](https://www.gemeenschappelijkwonen.nl/icsa/2001conference/ICSA_eBook.pdf) • [17](https://forskning.ruc.dk/da/publications/living-the-utopia-communal-living-in-denmark-and-britain/) Vinterberg's own account matches this picture: his commune was, he said, \"just like a big family\" of 12 to 15 academics, journalists, teachers, and children, with rent once proposed to be scaled by income.[18](https://yle.fi/a/7-1045334)\n\n## References\n\n1. [The Commune, Independent Cinema Office](https://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/films/the-commune/)\n2. [Danish director Thomas Vinterberg: 'To some extent, I understand Brexit', The Guardian (17 July 2016)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jul/17/thomas-vinterberg-interview-the-commune-kollektivet-brexit)\n3. [The Commune (2016) – Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3082854/awards/)\n4. [The Commune (Kollektivet), Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/297042/)\n5. [The Commune (Kollektivet), AFI FEST 2016](https://fest.afi.com/2016/world-cinema-2016/the-commune-kollektivet/)\n6. [The Commune, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_commune_2017)\n7. [The Commune critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-commune/critic-reviews/)\n8. [The Commune 2016, Kinoafisha](https://www.kinoafisha.info/en/movies/8322826/)\n9. [The Commune – first look, Sight and Sound, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/commune-first-look)\n10. [The Commune review – the more the merrier?, The Guardian (31 July 2016)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jul/31/commune-review-thomas-vinterberg)\n11. [The Commune, MIFF Festival Archive](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/26310/the-commune)\n12. [The Commune, IFFMH](https://www.iffmh.de/festival/programme/films/the-commune/index_eng.html)\n13. [The Commune 2016 film review, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-commune)\n14. [Vinterberg: \"The Commune is about the loss of innocence and love\", Nordisk Film & TV Fond (15 January 2016)](https://nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/news/stories/vinterberg-commune-about-loss-innocence-and-love)\n15. [Thomas Vinterberg on new film The Commune and his own communal childhood, South China Morning Post (28 September 2016)](https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2022932/thomas-vinterberg-new-film-commune-and-his-own-communal-childhood?module=inline&pgtype=others)\n16. [ICSA 2001 conference eBook, cohousing in Denmark and northern Europe](https://www.gemeenschappelijkwonen.nl/icsa/2001conference/ICSA_eBook.pdf)\n17. [Davis, John and Warring, Anette Elisabeth (2011). Living the Utopia: Communal Living in Denmark and Britain, Cultural and Social History 8(4): 513–530](https://forskning.ruc.dk/da/publications/living-the-utopia-communal-living-in-denmark-and-britain/)\n18. [Thomas Vinterberg och livet efter Dogma, Svenska Yle](https://yle.fi/a/7-1045334)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2015 to 2019 › Drama films 2015 and 2016 › Released in 2016*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-commune", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-commune.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Commune\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-commune. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Commune](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-commune)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-commune](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-commune). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Commune\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-commune. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Commune is a 2016 Danish drama by Thomas Vinterberg, adapted from his stage play about his commune childhood, starring Ulrich Thomsen and Trine Dyrholm, who won the 2016 Berlin Silver Bear for Best Actress." }