Discoveries from Norway World Cinema

A man babysits his girlfriends kid, and after a short while screams come from her room. Apparently she believes there's a monster under her bed.

One of the earlier silent films screened for Norwegian audiences, set in the region of Sabina, Italy.

"The World According to Arild Kristo" - A portrait of the Norwegian photographer, designer, screenwriter and filmmaker Arild Kristo (1939 - 2010). The son of a cabaret singer. Who made his first film only 11 years old. Worked as a piccolo at Hotel Bristol in Oslo . Took to the sea and was involved in the filming of "Windjammer" (1958). Freelance photographer in the US during the 60's. An outsider who lived a very different kind of life. In Paris or Berlin or Oslo.

Per 'Parker' Andreassen had every opportunity to do what he wanted with his life. After experimenting with hard drugs in his youth, he gradually and unwillingly became one of northern Norway's most famous characters. Famous for all the wrong things.

Pia has dropped out of school to work as a journalist in her father's newsdesk, but struggles to communicate with other people. When her mentally ill grandfather passes away, Pia get offered to take over his apartment. In the middle of the moving process she finds suddenly some secret papers her grandfather has hidden away. These documents suggest that someone controls internet, and have scary plans for the world's population. Pia starts to examine his claims in her grandfather's documents, before she know it, she is trapped in a race between life and death.

Gender Me is a road movie about Mansour’s voyage into the world of Islam. It is a personal odyssey through a world of taboos, filled with contradictory images. He explores questions regarding faith and gender in Islam with a special focus on the unusual stories of Muslim gays. Mansour is a homosexual Iranian refugee who has been living in Oslo for the past 18 years where he works as a pharmacist. Now he wants to travel back to Istanbul, where he lived for two years before he was granted asylum in Norway.

The film gives a bird's-eye view of the daily activity in Bergen, a town on the west coast of Norway. The city comes to life in miniature.

Lussi is a well-behaved little girl. She is always quiet, clever, clean and pretty, Mommy’s darling and Daddy’s girl. Finally it becomes too much of a good thing, and Lussi refuses to behave. This children’s short is based on the book “Snill” by Gro Dahle.Produsent:Lise Fearnley

A satirical, surreal short about a woman that struggles to find her place in a futuristic society where work and productivity are all that matters. Emotions are banned and people that fail to live up to the standards set by the government are captured by officials dressed in yellow, never to be seen again. The film uses a combination of surveillance cameras and subjective shots to show the last day in the life of this woman, as she fails to live up to the norms of this society.

An old man eagerly awaits a visitor.

A local theatre company prepares for a production of Ivar Aasen's Ervingen.

Swedish Play based on August Strindberg

Norwegian Documentary History Series about the nazi era in Norway.

Norwegian series based on the film.

Harvesting the Wasteland focuses on social relations and portrays the complicated relationship between a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law at a remote farm in Norway, documented over four years.

An animated documentary about growing up with a father in jail.

Mads should have told the truth. Actually, he is terrible at fighting.

The old caretaker inaugurates four boys in secondary school with a bang! Those who believe that all it takes is soap, deodorant, water and aftershave, do not know what a man should smell.

A 1945 documentary celebrating the 40 year anniversary of Norway's King Haakon VII.

When film director Morten Conradi´s father met Igor Trapitsin, a Russian prisoner of war, for the first time in Brønnøysund in Norway 1945, it was the beginning of a friendship that lasted until Morten’s father died in 1977. Morten always wanted to find Igor and find out how he survived the barbaric conditions in the camps during the Second World War. So in 2009 Morten went to Moscow to meet him. The answer Igor gave was unexpected, he simply said: "Singing saved my life".

Kåre Morten is a Norwegian man with Down Syndrome. Without commenting or interfering, director Sandberg observes his daily life. The fly-on-the-wall images provide a remarkable glimpse into the emotional life of a special person and his immediate surroundings.

Eleven-year-old Ada experiences that her father forgets to pick her up at the airport. She is invited to a neighbor’s house to wait for him. There she meets Julia, a girl her age. Julia disapproves of being told to play with Ada. The two girls measure forces in the northern Norwegian nature. Free from the adult gaze they are approaching each other and a new identity.

When all is said and done, conclusions are not so important after all.

Should people care when central developments will affect the character of the place, or is this only a matter for builders, politicians and bureaucrats? Erling Okkenhaug's troubled Eastlander does not give up on Tørre Møkka (PTM method) when he sees that Risør's distinctive character is being threatened by developers who want to develop uniform apartment blocks in one of the best-preserved wooden townhouses in Europe.

Hessdalen is a small valley in the central part of Norway. At the end of 1981 through 1984, residents of the Valley became concerned and alarmed about strange, unexplained lights that appeared at many locations throughout the Valley. Hundreds of lights were observed. At the peak of activity there were about 20 reports a week. Assistant professor Erling Strand, the founder of the Hessdalen project, conducted together with the author the first international congress of the Hessdalen phenomena in 1994. This congress attracted scientists from all over the world and boosted the scientific research in Hessdalen. Lights are still being observed in the Hessdalen Valley, but their frequency has decreased to about 20 observations a year.The following is the conclusions from over 25 years of research and after Italian SETI scientists got involved with much more highly sophisticated equipment.

This film looks at the efforts to rebuild Afghanistan's infrastructure and culture, as seen through the eyes of women, such as former Deputy Prime Minister Sima Samar, whose fight for education and health-care rights for women and girls put them in danger. Having survived the Taliban, they are putting their lives back together.

An entity born out of the primeval colour sea is thrust into being, and shortly after ends up the Gray world, an ancient place without colour. The colour entity, Chroma, soon meets the inhabitants of this world, them being drawn to this strange new element. These inhabitants are like the antithesis to Chroma, gray and jagged like land they reside in. There is soon a confrontation and Chroma, being alone against many, is quickly subdued. Chroma now has to make a choice, will they be a part of the gray world or try to defy it.

Idol became the biggest talent competition ever held in Norway. Every Friday, hundreds of thousands of Norwegians sat in front of their TVs following the contest. Few will forget the joyful face of Kurt Nilsen when he won the final against Gaute Ormåsen. Kurt made it through round after round, and on May 23, 2003, he stood victorious on the stage at Chateau Neuf, securing first prize: a recording contract with BMG. On this DVD, we follow the 10 finalists from the first live broadcast all the way to the finale. It also includes a look back at many others who dreamed of becoming Norway’s next superstar.

For 15 years Jonathan has kept a box of DV tapes chronicling his teenage years spent skateboarding with his friends and filming everything. Or at least he thought it was everything. Recently Jonathan found out that the skateboarding team’s manager, his trusted mentor Anders physically and mentally abused many in the group, including Jonathan’s closest friends – for years. The Art of Not Knowing explores the weight of memory, power dynamics of tight knit groups, and the healing that comes from breaking the silence.

Poetic documentary highlighting the contrast between forestry using machines and horses.

When a hopeless romantic meets his ex at a wedding party the sparks start flying, but things are more complicated than they seem.

tre40fire seeks the courage to dance without inhibitions and judgement. On the way dreams and reality collapse, exalted in body, sweat, rhythm and fellowship.

A wordless experimental short film where the language of movement explores emotional dysregulation, and how body and instincts often know more than the mind itself.

Family man Sigve Aasland suffers a severe heart attack. All hope seems lost, he is put in a ventilator and intended for organ donation. As his daughter intends to take her last farewell - in the form of a song - something extraordinary happens. The way back to life isn't just easy, but with love, community and a good dose of humor one can get surprisingly far.

Through personal stories and professional reflections, the film balances emotional and informative content to give students insight into what obstetric violence can be and how it may be experienced. Furthermore, the film illustrates how the intentions behind care can sometimes lead to trauma when trust is broken. In doing so, it invites viewers to reflect on a central question: How can actions intended to provide safety end up causing harm?

A cautious, security-oriented librarian’s life is turned upside down when a strange man suddenly appears in her living room and declares his love for her.

Think before you act...

Repetitive image manipulation.

Petr, a kind-hearted baker, falls in love with Elena, a copper-haired nurse, while hospitalized. In a tender moment, she sedates him—and together with her accomplices, replaces his heart with a mechanical one. When she vanishes without a trace, Petr is thrown into a desperate search, driven by hope and despair.

A killer inspired by the first Slakt goes on a killing spree.

The first part of the film describes a housing collective in Stabekk, six months after its inception. The film team arrives one year later to investigate how the situation has developed.

In Alta, thousands participate in the salmon lottery every year, where 700 winners get to buy an 18-hour fishing license. "Døgnet" is a strong tradition that brings generations together around salmon fishing as culture and identity. The documentary depicts a local community's struggle to preserve its bond with the river when wild salmon are threatened. What is really at stake when a species is in danger of disappearing?

When 20 students decided in the fall of 1976 to leave Gamlebyen county college and create their own alternative county college in Skjeberg, they initiated one of the most interesting school experiments that has ever seen the light of day in Norway. Within a short time, the students themselves established Kvastebyen alternative county college where there was no curriculum, but where all activities, both academic and practical, were part of the program.

The tragic killing of a Norwegian man in urgent need of psychiatric help is recounted in a film that uses his own tape recordings as a guide to ask what happened and how it could have been avoided.

The video focuses on how we learn to move our bodies and its effect on rhythm and poetry. The video combines found clips of Namba-walking (a traditional Japanese walking style), race, transgender voice training tutorials, and club culture symbols. The video speculates the link between walking and dancing styles, the rhythm of haiku poetry, and club music. The video is created using datamoshing, a method used to destroy the recognition criteria of different video clips. Playing the video after this uncontrollable process works only with motion detection.

Beathoven travels to Sorgenfri Inn on a retreat after the festival season. At the abandoned and deserted hotel, they meet the hotel director. He turns out to have carefully planned each person's stay, with his own incentives as the first priority. The short film is, like the album of the same name, a critique of artist life. The actions in the film symbolize how artists differently experience pressure, discrimination, drugs & alcohol, money & debt and the eternal quest to stay relevant in order to survive as an artist. Symbolized through the hotel “Sorgenfri Inn” and a cynical hotel director.

Jann is one of the last remaining eider duck keepers on the remote Arctic island of Sandøy in Træna. Anchored in coastal heritage, Jann has unique island skills that embody the rich tangible and intangible culture of Northern Norway. When teenage Træna islander Adam and Jann meet on Sandøy, they form an intergenerational bond as they visit the breeding eider ducks tending their nesting homes.

A young female Sámi reindeer herder must choose between pursuing further education or taking over her ancestors' traditional way of life. In this warm-hearted documentary, we follow her in her choice while exploring several aspects of an endangered cultural heritage in today's society.