Zappa (1983 film)

Zappa is a 1983 Danish coming-of-age drama film directed by Bille August. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival and was entered into the 13th Moscow International Film Festival. The film was also selected as the Danish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 56th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

Zappa was adapted for the screen from the novel by the same name by Bjarne Reuter. It is the first of a trilogy, followed by Når snerlen blomstrer and Vi der valgte mælkevejen. The sequel Når snerlen blomstrer was also filmed by Bille August in 1984 and is known as Twist and Shout in English.

Reception
The film was reviewed in The New York Times in 1984, Janet Maslin stating that "Mr. August has made Zappa a suspenseful, moving drama, with concerns that are as troubling as they are universally recognizable." Nathan Rabin reviewed Zappa for the AV Club in 2004, writing that he saw it as a "masterfully bleak coming-of-age drama" and that "the film's unnerving power comes from its realization that everyone is doomed to go through adolescence alone." DVD Talk and AllMovie also reviewed, with the former commenting that it was "a pretty intense piece or work" and superior to its sequel.

In a review for Positif, François Ramasse praised the film's intelligence and its shift from gentleness to violence.