Kirsten Aller

Behind the red gates lies Dyrehaven with the green beeches and the famous zoo hill - the motley world of clowns. Professor Labardi is behind the popular singer pavilion, where his young daughter, Gulnare, performs. After a rainy summer, there is an economic low tide on Bakken, and the family is tempted to seek help from Gulnare's enterprising suitor, Carlo Petersen. But Professor Labardi carries a secret: the clown family has family ties to the fine legal world outside the gates. There is conflict, money transactions, love, hypocrisy and villainous streaks when the fine world and the hill folk meet. Behind the Red Gates is a terrific folk comedy that takes us behind the attractions at the traditional amusement park in Klampenborg.

Tove Andersen's problem ends in Christianshavn's moat, and this is where the film begins. The body has a noose around its neck. The homicide division is called in, and it turns out that shortly before her death, she had undergone an illegal operation. An unscrupulous womanizer had abandoned the young student from the countryside when the relationship had consequences. The doctor rejects her after a beautiful lecture on the sanctity of life, and she must therefore rely on "private" help.

We follow two randomly selected destinies: two young girls whose data could have been taken straight from the police files, which contain so many human documents—many sad, but also many joyful, because a large proportion of those who were initially weak and frivolous are saved from the temptations of the big city.