Häxan

Häxan (Danish title: Heksen; English title: The Witches or Witchcraft Through the Ages) is a 1922 Swedish-Danish silent film written and directed by Benjamin Christensen. Based partly on Christensen's study of the Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th-century German guide for inquisitors, Häxan is a study of how superstition and the misunderstanding of diseases and mental illness could lead to the hysteria of the witch-hunts. The film was made as a documentary but contains dramatised sequences that are comparable to horror films.

With Christensen's meticulous recreation of medieval scenes and the lengthy production period, the film was the most expensive Scandinavian silent film ever made, costing nearly two million Swedish kronor. Although it won acclaim in Denmark and Sweden, the film was banned in the United States and heavily censored in other countries for what were considered at that time graphic depictions of torture, nudity, and sexual perversion.

Plot

Part 1

A scholarly dissertation on the appearances of demons and witches in primitive and medieval culture, a number of photographs of statuary, paintings, and woodcuts are used as demonstrative pieces. In addition, several large scale models are employed to demonstrate medieval concepts of the structure of the solar system and the commonly accepted depiction of Hell.

Häxan Surtant

Häxan Surtant (The Sour-Hag Witch), also called "Världens suraste och elakaste häxa" ("The sulkiest and meanest witch in the world") in the beginning of the programs, is a Swedish fictional character who appears in SVT. Now 4 TV series about "Häxan Surtant" have been broadcast, and all of them are directed and written by Carl Englén. The narrator (called Pratgubben), who always appears, is Sven Björklund. On 28 August 2009 "Häxan Surtant" received the Kristallen Award for being "the 2009 best children's TV program".

Cast

Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization

Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization is a board game for 2–4 players designed by Vlaada Chvatil and published by Czech Board Games in 2006. Its theme is the development of human civilization and the players determine the progress of their own civilization in different fields including culture, government, leadership, religion and science. The game has won multiple awards including the International Gamer’s Award in 2007 and Game of the Year in Poland in 2010, where it was published as Cywilizacja: Poprzez Wieki.

The game is about building a civilization, including urban buildings, governments, population, resource productions, military etc. By drawing and buying cards the players take their civilizations through 4 ages - beginning with classical antiquity and ending in the Modern Age. The game has spent over 5 years ranked in the top 5 board games at Board Game Geek.

Game Description

Through the Ages is a civilization building game. The goal is to develop your civilization, not to destroy other ones. Military strength is just one aspect of your nation, as well as population, production or science. It is up to you which aspect you will concentrate on, more or less, but you should not underestimate any of them while building your civilization. Victory is achieved by the player whose nation produces the most culture during the game. However, there are many ways to produce culture: through religion, literature or drama, by building wonders, by utilizing cultural persons etc. Considerable amount of culture can be gained even via wars or aggression.

Benjamin Christensen

Benjamin Christensen (28 September 1879 – 2 April 1959) was a Danish film director, screenwriter and an actor both in film and on the stage. As a director he is most well known for the 1922 film Häxan and as an actor, he is best known for his performance in the film Michael (1924), in which he plays Claude Zoret, the jilted lover of the film's title character.

Biography

Benjamin Christensen was born in Viborg and initially studied medicine, but caught the acting bug and began studies at the Det Kongelige Teater (Royal Danish Theatre) in Copenhagen in 1901. Christensen's professional acting career began in Aarhus in 1907, but after a short stint as actor he abandoned the stage in order to become a wine salesman. In 1911, Christensen made his debut as a film actor; all of his pre-directorial efforts are lost, but among such films was Scenens børn (1913), the only motion picture directed by eminent Norwegian playwright and stage director Bjørn Bjørnson.

In 1913, Christensen assumed control of the small, Hellborg-based production company for which he worked and reorganized it as Dansk-Biograf Kompagnie. The first film he directed, Det hemmelighedsfulde X (The Mysterious X, 1914), was one of the most astonishing directorial debuts in film history; although a routine spy melodrama, the camerawork, cutting and art direction were revolutionary for the period. Christensen himself played the main role, as he did in his second film, Hævnens nat (Blind Justice, 1916). Once again, Christensen portrayed a man wrongly accused of murder, and the artistic quality of his sophomore effort was equal to his first. Despite the success of his first two films, Christensen did not find acceptance within the Danish film industry, and after Blind Justice he returned to the stage.