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Film Archive

Kitchen Stories

Another View 2003 / Salmer fra kjokkenet / Norway 2003

Izak is one of many bachelors from the Norwegian village of Landstadt where experts from the Institute of Housing Culture were sent at the beginning of the fifties to observe how lonely men cope with kitchen work. This is how Folke Nilsson entered Izak’s kitchen and life.

Kitchen Stories Kitchen Stories

Synopsis

After the end of the Second World War Swedish housing and furniture experts agreed that it was necessary to start manufacturing multipurpose kitchen counters, which would save households time, effort and money. When documenting housekeeping behaviour and habits the scientists from the Institute of Housing Culture crossed geographical and “tribal” borders. At the beginning of the fifties, eighteen observers went to Landstad, a small Norwegian village which boasted an unusually high number of bachelors. For 24 hours a day they observed the bachelors doing kitchen work. The institute equipped the observers with a chair high enough to get a bird’s eye view of the action and with the privilege of coming and going as they pleased, but forbid them to speak with the observed men or to help them cook. Thus prepared, Folke Nilsson entered the house and life of an eccentric fellow named Izak. He kept to the rules and was enthusiastic about his task. The research turned out differently than either man had imagined.

About the film

95 min / Color, 35 mm

Director Bent Hamer / Screenplay Bent Hamer / Dir. of Photography Philip Øgaard / Music Hans Mathisen / Editor Pål Gengenbach / Producer Bent Hamer / Production BulBul Film AS / Cast Joachim Calmeyer, Tomas Norström, Bjorn Floberg, Reine Brynolfsson / Contact Norwegian Film Institute , BulBul Film AS, Celluloid Dreams

About the director

Bent Hamer

Bent Hamer (b. 1956, Sandefjord, Norway), director, screenwriter and producer, graduated in film theory and literature from the University of Stockholm, and attended film school in the Swedish capital as well. He is the owner of BulBul Film productions, where all his films have been made. He has been making movies (documentaries and shorts) since the eighties, but his feature debut came in 1995 with Eggs (screened at the 31st KV IFF. His third feature, Kitchen Stories, premiered at this year’s Cannes IFF in the Director’s Fortnight section. 

Contacts

Norwegian Film Institute
Box 482 Sentrum, 0105, Oslo
Norway
Phone: +47 224 745 00
Fax: +47 224 745 97
E-mail: [email protected]

BulBul Film AS
Hoyasveien 24, N-3216, Sandefjord
Norway
Phone: +47 33 464 895
Fax: +47 33 464 895
E-mail: [email protected]

Celluloid Dreams
2, rue Turgot, 75009, Paris
France
Phone: +33 149 700 370
E-mail: [email protected]

Guests

Stine Oppegaard
Film Institution Rep.

Vigdis Lian

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