The Man Who Loved Yngve

Colour, 35 mm
Norway, 2008, 99 min
Section: Forum of Independents

Synopsis

The Norwegian town of Stavanger is nice but it’s a bit of a monotonous place to live in, and the revolutionary end of the 1980s only reaches it through the television screen. For seventeen-year-old Jarle, the sole escape from the grey tedium is through the music of new wave bands, under the influence of which he and his friends form “the most hardcore punk band in Stavanger” (primarily so that, as underage secondary school students, they can get in to the only rock club in town). When a new student named Yngve starts school though, Jarle’s hitherto childish world is turned upside down: without even knowing how it happened, he finds himself choosing between the girl that everyone envies him for and a boy he doesn’t really even know that well. It’s not often that one comes across the kind of emotional turning point that debuting Stian Kristiansen manages to instil in his film – his entertaining comedy about growing up fractures almost unnoticed into a bitterly melancholic tale of impossible love.

About the director

Stian Kristiansen (b. 1972) completed his studies in direction at the Norwegian Film School in Stavanger in 2006. In addition to his work as a director he was also an actor for a number of years in the Rogaland Theatre, and his acting talent also brought him several film roles (e.g. in the Norwegian Amanda award-winning Mongoland by director Arild Ommundsen). Until now he had only been making short films; the adaptation of Tore Renberg’s The Man Who Loved Yngve is his feature film debut.