Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie), who has just been released from a drug rehab clinic in Oslo, has a job interview but visits an old friend (Hans Olav Brenner) first; their lives stand in stark contrast to each other. Director Joachim Trier’s internationally renowned film was inspired by a Pierre Drieu La Rochelle novel, “Le feu follet”, and follows a day in the life of a drug addict with a relentlessness that is hard to escape. The story may be simple, but realized in a calm, sad and poetic way. Anders’s dark journey is elevated by hypnotic memories of growing up and encounters with friends and former lovers that ring true. Anders’s sense of isolation in Oslo is illustrated in striking ways.
2011-Norway. 95 min. Color. Produced byĀ Hans-JĆørgen Osnes, Yngve SƦther. Directed byĀ Joachim Trier. Screenplay: Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt. Cast: Anders Danielsen Lie (Anders), Hans Olav Brenner (Thomas), Ingrid Olava (Rebekka), Tone Mostraum.
Trivia:Ā Original title: Oslo, 31. august.
Last word:Ā “In a way I think that itās not just about Norway. I think you would find a lot of these resourceful smart people that get very lost in many places in the world. I had a very strange experience with my previous film,Ā ‘Reprise’, which we made in Norway, and we tried to be local and specific. But suddenly Iām sitting in New York talking to people from Williamsburg who say, ‘Well, I have friends who areĀ exactly like that.’ Or I talk to someone in Paris and they say the same thing. Iām hoping that for ‘Oslo’ as well, that people can identify with some sort of human problem of being lost in your existence and the melancholy of that.” (Trier, Film Comment)