Private Project

Things We Don't See

Colleagues Jeppe and Louise sit in the park during their lunch break and follow the lives of the people around them. But then the day takes an unexpected turn, when they see a burglary across the street and have to decide what to do.

  • Louise Hylland
    Director
  • Louise Hylland
    Writer
  • Ida Dolmer
    Writer
  • Rasmus Leo Phoenix
    Photographer
  • Katrine Dolmer
    Producer
  • Louise Hylland
    Producer
  • Kiril Schjørring
    Producer
  • Jesper Ole Feit Andersen
    Key Cast
    "Jeppe"
  • Louise Hylland
    Key Cast
    "Louise"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Det vi ikke ser
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Comedy
  • Runtime:
    18 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    March 6, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    53,000 DKK
  • Country of Origin:
    Denmark
  • Country of Filming:
    Denmark
  • Language:
    Danish
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Louise Hylland

Louise Hylland is a Danish-Norwegian actor/director, born in Bergen, who moved at the age of three to a small rural town south of Køge, Denmark, where she grew up. Even as a child, her mind was always engaged in psychological and philosophical thinking, drawn to grasping the nature of the mind, ego, thoughts, existence, and our perception of reality—a drive that remains ever-present in her filmmaking and acting.

Her short film 'One of the Boys' (2022), which explores peer pressure, drinking culture, and sexual assault, has been sold to the Danish Film Institute for use in educational programs in Danish primary schools. Her short film 'Do You Remember Paris' (2023) focuses on dementia and won the Young Directors Award at Cannes in 2023.

As a screenwriter and actress, she is known for 'That Time A Week' (DR - Danish Broadcast) and is currently working on developing TV series with, among others, Kim Magnusson (M&M Productions) and Ricco Wichmann (Pineapple Productions).

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Director Statement

The idea for the film arose when a good friend and I were sitting in a park, observing people from a distance. We let our imagination run wild but soon realized—joke aside—how quickly we assign a backstory, biases, and assumptions to everything we see. This was something I had to explore.

During the development of the film, Ida Dolmer joined early on as a co-writer, and together we delved into the research and background knowledge available in this field. As humans, we are natural storytellers, and evolutionarily, this has been a powerful mechanism. Studies show that when we are presented with fragmented information, our brain instinctively fills in the gaps using our own experiences, memories, biases, and preconceptions. This happens automatically and subconsciously, shaping our perception of reality.

Cinema is a great example of this: when a scene cuts from day to night, we immediately understand that time has passed—our brain fills in the missing details on its own.

I find this fascinating! But what happens if we play with this mechanism? What if we let the audience’s own biases dictate their perception of a story?

During the writing process, we discovered how many different directions the film could take. We made a conscious choice to challenge one of the most widespread and misleading assumptions in Denmark:

"Many Danes mistakenly believe that people of foreign descent commit the majority of crimes in the country. This is not the case. While certain groups are statistically overrepresented in crime data, the vast majority of offenses are still committed by individuals of Danish origin. Age differences play a significant role, as younger age groups generally have higher crime rates."

Our film addresses this issue and explores how we, as humans, create narratives about the world—often without realizing it.