Malmros has come up with a film even better than his excellent "Tree of Knowledge". He retains a wry, compassionate mood, not without humour, in this study of a crucial point in a father-daughter relationship. Klein plays the easy-going father who gets to notice more about his 16-year-old daughter on the verge of womanhood (an excellent performance by newcomer Soborg).

His wife is in hospital, and he finds the job of parental surveillance a disturbing experience. Her budding sexuality and the young men who buzz around her cause him to become over-protective. He makes some wrong and humiliating decisions. Is it pure parental concern that motivates him, or more than that?