As It Is in Heaven 2004

Daniel Daréus is a successful and renowned international conductor whose life goal is to create music that will open people’s hearts. Yet his own heart is frail after a recent heart attack on stage. He retreats from the spotlight to the remote village in Norrland, in the far north of Sweden, returning to the place where he endured a painful childhood filled with bullying. There, he purchases the old elementary school and begins to ease back into life through the simple act of listening. One Thursday night, the village invites him to hear their local choir, a gesture that hints at more than just feedback. He agrees to listen, and soon the dynamic of a community full of secrets and longing starts to pull him in.

Lena catches his attention almost immediately as their paths cross within the choir’s world. As they grow closer, a quiet love begins to bloom, and Daniel finds himself rediscovering the pure joy of making music. But the village is rich with intertwining personal troubles that colour every note they sing. Inger is married to the respected minister, Stig, yet their relationship lacks genuine intimacy, leaving a gap that the choir’s harmony can’t quite fill. Siv moves through life with a stern moral gaze, unable to loosen the reins of restraint long enough to truly enjoy herself.

Arne is driven by an almost manic desire for the choir’s triumph, he fixes on tiny mistakes and overlooks larger flaws in his own approach. Tore is an outcast who is slowly welcomed into the fold, a reminder of the village’s capacity for inclusion. Holmfrid has endured taunts since childhood, nicknamed “Fatso,” but he eventually finds the courage to stand up to the pressures around him. The lines between support and danger blur as Gabriella suffers abuse at the hands of her husband, Conny, a truth known to the entire village yet often ignored.

The tension spirals as Conny’s past intersects with today: he blames the choir—and Daniel—for his wife’s decision to leave, and he lashes out, leaving Daniel scarred enough to land him in jail after a brutal confrontation. The village’s minister, [Stig], grows jealous of the choir’s rising success and attempts to shut them down, a move that only amplifies the tension until his own nerves fracture under the strain. Despite these storms, the choir earns a place in the annual festival, the famous Let the Peoples Sing, with Arne having registered them without full consensus, a decision that echoes the village’s fractured dynamics. They travel to Innsbruck, Austria, where the performance becomes a crucible for everybody involved.

As the day of the competition arrives, Lena fears that Daniel will drift away again toward the more dazzling world of his high-society musical peers, especially after she sees him sharing a moment with such friends. In a heartfelt, long-awaited confession, he tells her he loves her, and they share a private moment of tenderness. Yet the moment of truth collides with fear when Daniel, overwhelmed by anxiety, disappears from the stage. He experiences another heart episode, rushing to a restroom where a fall against a pipe opens a fatal wound. Bleeding, he lies on the cold tile as the choir’s harmonies wash over the audience, the music rising to accompany him as he loses consciousness. The crowd’s enchantment mirrors the magic he sought to create, even as the man who began the journey slips away. The audience unites, moved by the power of their sound and the emotional weight of the moment.

In the final, almost dreamlike sequence, Daniel runs through a field of wheat toward his younger self, lifting that version of him up in triumph. It is a quiet, cinematic affirmation of his lifelong mission: to use music to unlock another heart. The image lingers as a testament to a life spent teaching, healing, and giving, a life that ends where it began, with a single, transformative choice to share music that opens a heart.