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Oslo, August 31st

  • Film
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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Time Out says

4 out of 5 stars
‘Every junkie’s like the setting sun,’ sang Neil Young, and this deeply affecting, quiet and restrained Norwegian film is a compassionate, cutting portrait of a day in the life of a man whose light is slowly going out. Anders (Anders Danielsen) is a thirtysomething, fresh out of rehab, who arrives in Oslo for a job interview and to catch up with old friends. Over the opening credits, we hear anonymous voices recalling growing up in Oslo, which hint too at the film’s carefully-handled theme of being disconnected from places and people in your past, sometimes tragically so. Several encounters, filmed delicately and intimately by writer-director Joachim Trier (‘Reprise’), investigate this idea further as Anders fluffs the interview, spends time with an old pal who is now a husband and father, and goes to a party at the apartment of one of his successful contemporaries. Trier has adapted a 1930s French novel, which in 1963 Louis Malle filmed as ‘Le Feu Follet’, but this feels totally fresh and modern in its concerns. It’s also devastating.
Written by Dave Calhoun

Release Details

  • Rated:15
  • Release date:Friday 4 November 2011
  • Duration:96 mins

Cast and crew

  • Director:Joachim Trier
  • Screenwriter:Joachim Trier
  • Cast:
    • Anders Danielsen
    • Lie Hans Olav Brenner
    • Ingrid Olava
    • Petter Width
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