In the movie entitled, As It Is in Heaven directed by Kay Pollak, an efficacious international conductor suddenly abandons his career objectives and decides to return to his home village Norrland, in north Sweden, while at his home village, he is requested to come along and listen to fragment of the church choir as they practice at the parish Hall every Thursdays (Foley 166). Upon joining the choir in their daily practices, nothing in the village ever became the same henceforth. The church choir evident in the movie grow incredibly and the successful international conductor the main character in this movie makes both friends and enemies. By closely relating to this movie, this paper will essentially compare the urban culture with the rural culture.
Evident from the movie is the fact that the urban areas have diverse cultural believes and traditions, unlike the rural areas. To ascertain this, the movie well depicts and proves this notion owing to the reason that; the people from the village in which Daniel Daréus came from have one common religion and way of life unlike the urban areas where it is palpable that people live in accordance to the culture of the rural areas in which they came from, or a comprehensive culture that has been developed in the urban areas following the interactions taking place there. Basically, the urban areas being a get-together point of people from various rural areas, the culture of the urban areas evident from the movie has since developed to have its own culture
Similar to any other rural area, individual’s freedom and personal life is not secluded. Daniel Daréus’s life is well known most of the villagers and particularly the choir band, the profile of Daniel Daréus and other characters in the movie particularly Lena who attracts Daniel Daréus. Essentially, in rural areas particularly the one depicted in this film, individuals or rather people know each other well to an extent where they can know what you own who you date, and many other details about you. In the urban areas particularly where Daniel Daréus used to work before retiring to the village, it is well apparent that everyone lives his live without necessarily being known in-depth a case that contrasts the nature of the rural areas.
Additionally, the culture of the rural areas is the one characterised with people being mutual amongst each other unlike the urban areas. From the film, Daniel Daréus relates communally with both the church members and the choir members to an extend where Daniel Daréus can be approached to come listen to the fragment during Thursdays when the choir practices (Teays 50). Additionally, Daniel Daréus rides with children at will and interacts with all other people in the village in a manner that suggests that everyone in the village is satisfied unlike the urban areas where everyone is for his or her own self.
In the rural areas, the culture in which people believe in makes them supportive to each other unlike the culture of the urban areas. In the film, Daniel Daréus sacrifices his time in order to have some time with the children and the choir team. Additionally, we see Lena whom Daniel Daréus gets attracted to teaching Daniel Daréus how to ride a bike a clear evidence that people in the rural areas are more bound and close among each other unlike in the urban areas where the culture in which people live in doesn’t necessarily allow them to become more concentrated and supportive amongst themselves (Teays 49).
Furthermore, according to the article entitled Latin American "street children": Living on the edge it is apparent that the culture of the urban areas is the one in which people live for their own selves with no much consideration to others (Gottdiener and Ray 281). From the film however, the culture of the rural areas is the one in which people tend to care and support each other particularly in providing foods and shelter.
The culture of the rural area as depicted in the film is more religions as compared to that of the urban that is more secular. In the village illustrated in the movie, people have a mutual religious believes unlike that of the urban area where Daniel Daréus used to live before he retired from his career. Majority of people in the rural area mentioned herein are Christians that have a common believe among themselves. Additionally, majority of the people living in the rural areas have no apparent profession as it is the case in the urban areas. From the film, Daniel Daréus came back to his home village upon retiring from his profession to ease the weight of the work he had been doing. The film clearly shows that majority of people living in urban areas tend to have jobs they can lean on unlike those in the rural areas whom majority of them have no clearly defined professions.
In a nutshell, it is clear as portrayed in the film that, their exist apparent difference between the urban culture and the rural culture, by essentially observing the life development of main characters and protagonist in the film (Daniel Daréus), difference between the rural and the urban particularly stems from the lifestyle, the bond that exist among people, religion among, many other things.
Works Cited
Foley, Edward. Religions, Diversity and Conflict. Münster, Westf: LIT, 2011. Print.
Gottdiener, Mark, and Ray Hutchison. The New Urban Sociology. Boulder, CO: Westview
Press, 2011. Internet resource.
Teays, Wanda. Seeing the Light: Exploring Ethics Through Movies. Malden, MA: Wiley-
Blackwell, 2012. Print.
