Christensen's second "social-debate" film for Nordisk tackles the question of illegal abortions. Facing an unexpected pregnancy, a young office secretary, Ilse (Lis Smed), and her law-student boyfriend, Pontus (Mogens Wieth), struggle with the tortuous choice of either having the baby or seeking a backstreet abortion. Adapted from Leck Fischer's play, the film's mise-en-scène never really escapes the story's theatrical origins, despite Christensen's periodic tracking shots and a sunlit, Nordic summer exterior sequence. The fine ensemble acting carries most of the narrative, and the divisive politics within Pontus's family clan microcosmically stand in for conflicted Danish social attitudes about abortion in 1940. Well received by the critics and public, The Child further strengthened Christensen's revived reputation as an important filmmaker willing to take on serious and previously taboo subjects.-Arne Lunde