Open Hearts

In the Swedish film “As It Is In Heaven,” Daniel Dareus is an internationally acclaimed symphony conductor who, although fabulously successful in his career, is deeply lonely, broken, and bitter in his life. After suffering a serious heart attack Dareus retreats from the conductor’s podium to the Swedish village of Norrland where as a child he had suffered terribly at the hands of school bullies.

After keeping to himself in Norrland, Dareus is slowly coaxed to take a position conducting the tiny amateur local church choir. As the choir begins to discover its voice, Dareus recovers the original vision that caused him to pursue a life in music. Near the end of the film Dareus says that when he started his career in music he wanted to “create music that will open a person’s heart.”