Nature and Landscape in Norwegian Cinema 2005 / Hawaii, Oslo / Norway 2004
People’s lives are endlessly dramatic and, at the same time, surprisingly interlinked; it’s enough to take a single day in Oslo and see what happens behind the facades of houses and on the streets.
The leitmotif of the film is the changing patterns of a kaleidoscope which both separate and join five stories, set during a single summer’s day in Oslo. These, too, unexpectedly change and interweave; in one episode, certain relationships and groupings are formed, only to immediately disintegrate and be transformed in the next. In its ingenious jigsaw-like character, the film is reminiscent of 21 Grams by director Alejandro Iñárritu. Here, too, are people who had never met before, who, though intersecting several times, would just pass in the street anonymously. We also encounter woeful misfortunes, characters cave in under their weight, they make fatal mistakes, they don’t understand others or even themselves, they betray each other and hurt themselves. Yet, at the same time, each of them tastes the bitterness of loneliness and desires to be loved. Vidar is some kind of new-age guardian angel, a nurse from a psychiatric hospital; in the end, it looks as if he has watched over everyone else, forgetting himself....
125 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Erik Poppe
/ Screenplay Harald Rosenløw Eeg
/ Dir. of Photography Ulf Brantås
/ Music John Erik Kaada, Bugge Wesseltoft
/ Editor Einar Egeland
/ Producer Finn Gjerdrum
/ Production Paradox Produksjon AS
/ Cast Trond Espen Seim, Jan Gunnar Røise, Evy Kasseth Røsten, Aksel Hennie, Petronella Barker, Robert Skjærstad, Benjamin Røsler
/ Contact Norwegian Film Institute , TrustNordisk
www: www.hawaiioslo.no
Erik Poppe (b. 1960, Oslo) grew up in Norway and Portugal. In Oslo he studied photography and, during the 1980s, worked as a photographer for Reuters and Norwegian newspapers. In 1987-91 he studied film photography at the Dramatiska Institutet in Stockholm. He then made a series of successful shorts, over 100 commercials and around 20 music videos. At home he won a prize for the TV series “Fire Brigade” (“Brigaden” , 2001-2002). His debut feature was the film Bunch of Five (Schpaaa, 1998) about a gang of juvenile delinquents. The film Hawaii, Oslo (2004) is his second feature film.
Norwegian Film Institute
Box 482 Sentrum, 0105, Oslo
Norway
Phone: +47 224 745 00
Fax: +47 224 745 97
E-mail: [email protected]
TrustNordisk
Filmbyen 22, 2650, Hvidovre
Denmark
Phone: +45 368 687 88
E-mail: [email protected]
Astri Blindheim
Film Institution Rep.
Jan Erik Holst
Film Institution Rep.
Vigdis Lian
Stine Oppegaard
Film Institution Rep.
Tine Klint
Other, Sales Agent
Aksel Hennie
Actor / Film Director
First-hand brews throughout the year.
Be among the first to learn about upcoming events and other news. We only send the newsletter when we have something to say.
