Devil’s Playground

''Heaven and Hell are real places. Where do you wanna stay in eternity?'' That question is asked of Amish teenagers in Lucy Walker's documentary Devil's Playground. The Amish don't believe in baptism at birth. When the Amish kids turn 16, they're let free to spend time by Satan's side, with the purpose of later being able to make a decision whether life beyond the Christian Orthodox Church really is something to strive for. To some, this period is not only about getting a driver's licence or a job at the town factory, but rather about partying until you drop. The road from milking cows at dawn to downright crack-smoking isn't that long, but there are others who take the western way of life more seriously. The Amish parents are willingly letting their Little Red Riding Hood youngsters into the arms of grinning old ''grandma'' Wolfy the dope-dealer, after which they curse, but accept since they feel the whole situation to be totally necessary. To an outsider the whole idea appears somewhat ambiguous, but you can't help but understand these hungry slackers who have spent their entire lives on the farm. Watching Devil's Playground is like getting sucked into a mix of Peter Weir's Witness (1985) and Larry Clark's Kids (1995), but the moral lectures are put aside and the viewer is invited to speculate about his own pagan temptations. Kasper Sperber

Premiärstatus
Svensk premiär: Producent
Steven Cantor: Foto
Lucy Walker: Musik
Aphex Twin: Talat språk
English