Buddy

Colour, 35 mm
Norway, 2003, 100 min
Section: Official selection

About the film

This story about friendship, love and fame tells the tale of 24-year-old Kristoffer who earns a living hanging billboards. The carefree young man’s quiet life changes when his girlfriend Elisabeth decides that she’d be happier with her boss, and she leaves him. Kristoffer’s small, safe world instantly falls to pieces. He starts feeling like a hopeless outcast. But one day his video diaries accidentally get into the hands of a TV producer who is in charge of the popular show Karsten Tonight. Within a few weeks Kristoffer’s life is public knowledge: TV viewers are entertained not only by the details of his everyday life, but also by the lives of his friends – his best pal Geir and computer designer Stig Inge. Kristoffer’s future suddenly looks rather rosy – everybody is interested in securing his favour. The TV star, however, has one big problem: his friends begin to turn away from him. He knows that he must get them back at any cost – but how?

About the director

Morten Tyldum (b. 1967) is one of the most commercially successful filmmakers in his native Norway. He graduated from New York University, then worked for television NRK on the children’s programme U, for which he shot several documentaries. He received accolades for his medium-length television film En Mann må gjore det han må (1996), about a rock musician who takes stock of his past after returning from prison. Also successful was the segment Hoyre from a project ironically illustrating contemporary ideology, Utopia – Nobody´s Perfect in Perfect Country (2002); it took the FIPRESCI Prize at the Mannheim-Heidelberg IFF, the R. W. Fassbinder Special Prize and the Award of Independent Owners.