When filmmaker Johannes returns home in the evening after a lecture tour, his home has become a crime scene, his relatives a mourning community frozen in terror: Only that afternoon, his wife Signe had killed their child - not out of malice or hatred, but because she was desperate, felt lonely and was suffering from psychosis for these and so many other reasons. Johannes does not condemn Signe, but tries to understand when and where he had inflicted suffering on her soul. Signe is a teacher. When her pupils and their parents find out about her mental breakdown (without knowing the exact circumstances or consequences), they all want her back in her place. However, the state and its representatives must first be convinced that society needs this woman ...
Sorrow and Joy (Sorg og Glæde) is: a meditation on the limits of human laws and the infinity of goodness; a profoundly Protestant melodrama about grace; in all this a sum of Malmros' life and work. Ergo: the perfect starting point for a journey of discovery through a highly intimate cosmos in which every person could probably recognize a little bit of themselves.
