Scandinavian movies in the competition program
The Norwegian grandmaster, Erik Poppe’s drama ‘U – July 22’ is a sharp, artistic and impressive example of talking about an act of terrorism claiming the life of 77 youngsters. In 2011, that many people died in a terrorist attack in Norway. The film begins with the Oslo bombing then it reconstructs the 72 minutes of the Utøya massacre in one long shot. The continuous shot feature is madness, paranoia, emotional sweep, a true shock to the audience. The horror is seen through the eyes of Kaja. When all hell breaks loose, the girl has only two goals: to escape and to find her younger sister.
The Sundance and Rotterdam IFF hit ‘The Guilty’ is also there in the competition program. Gustav Möller’s feature debut is about the hair-rising night of a policeman. Asger is finishing one of the many annoying duties at the police station when he gets a call from a kidnapped woman. Can he help her quickly and with strategic savvy? Less is sometimes more, and Gustav Möller’s feature debut is a wonderful example of this. As this carefully-paced thriller demonstrates, our experience of the story is fundamentally determined by our fancy.
Besides the drama we can also laugh: ‘Heavy Trip’ proves that absurdity and heavy metal knows no boundaries – literally. A young man is trying to overcome his fears by leading the most unknown heavy metal band in Finland, Impaled Rektum, to the hottest metal festival of Norway. The journey includes heavy metal, grave robbing, Viking heaven and an armed conflict between Finland and Norway.
