Uno

A very impressive debut, this finely modulated, observant and hard-hitting portrait of the tough end of Oslo life sees Hennie excel in all his three roles as writer, director and lead actor. The scenario may seem overloaded: not only has David (Hennie) a father dying with cancer and a demanding younger brother with Down’s Syndrome (Kristiansen, affectingly good) to contend with, but the police are on his case to finger the son of his violent employer for trafficking for a fearsome crew of ‘Paki’ villains on the very day his father is taken into hospital. Hennie transforms this potentially trite material by eliciting some spot-on and always highly credible performances (including his own) and by showing a precocious, versatile but never gimmicky control of camera technique, enabling him to portray violent action as persuasively as the minutiae of character traits and the expression of subtle emotion and moral quandary.