In 1971, hundreds of young people occupied abandoned military barracks in Copenhagen, giving rise to the self-governing freetown of Christiania, which survives to this day. Founded on ideals of freedom and community, this social experiment offered an alternative to mainstream Danish society. Drawing on extensive archive footage, filmmaker Karl Friis Forchhammer chronicles the anarchist neighbourhood’s beginnings and its internal rules. Challenges were addressed through a form of radical democracy: face-to-face community meetings that could last for hours. Yet Christiania also faced ceaseless struggles to preserve its autonomy, as well as outbreaks of violence, drug-dealing networks and religious cults. Spanning half a century, the archive material and the director’s wry narration establish Christiania as an important part of Danish cultural history, while revealing the limits of communal life and the tensions between idealism and conformity.
