Nature and Landscape in Norwegian Cinema 2005 / Svidd neger / Norway 2003
Set on a small patch of ground by an isolated northern Norwegian fjord, this satirically twisted image of Norwegian society, revolving around two incomplete families, a black man and a Lapp, is presented with absurd, black humour.
Anna lives with her father Karl in the wilds of northern Norway. She longs for a man and for liberation from the domestic hell of her father’s drunkenness. Karl uses alcohol to drive away the spectre of his wife’s murder: years ago, he threw his better half and her black infant into the ocean. Karl and Anna get to know a similarly lonely family: a widow-alcoholic, her son Peder and a black foundling. Karl promises his daughter to Peder, but she prefers an itinerant Lapp with whom she has twins. When this fact and other heavy truths about the past come to light, drama turns to tragedy. In generic terms, the film is surprisingly classed as a comedy, replete with absurd scenes, gags and ironic sayings, which takes advantage of the contrast between the shocking content of the narration and the odd slant of its execution. The movie strives to satirically reflect unhealthy phenomena in Norwegian society, here in part represented by neglected minority relations, and the loss of identity when faced with the influence of American cultural ‘ideals.’
87 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Erik Smith Meyer
/ Screenplay Stein Elvestad
/ Dir. of Photography Hoyte van Hoytema
/ Music Ulver/Trond Nedberg
/ Producer Erling Falch
/ Production Filmfalken AS
/ Cast Eirik Junge Eliassen, Kjersti Gullvåg, Kingsford Siayord, Björn Granath
/ Contact Norwegian Film Institute
www: www.sviddneger.no
Erik Smith Meyer has been involved in many fields, and he studied acting with Teaterprosjekt 84. He has worked as an actor, painter and playwright, and as a producer-director of short films, documentaries and television shows. His short Sveits (Switzerland, 2001) took Best Short Film at the festival in Mannheim-Heidelberg 2001. The Black Lapp (2003) is his feature film directorial debut.
Norwegian Film Institute
Box 482 Sentrum, 0105, Oslo
Norway
Phone: +47 224 745 00
Fax: +47 224 745 97
E-mail: [email protected]
Astri Blindheim
Film Institution Rep.
Jan Erik Holst
Film Institution Rep.
Vigdis Lian
Stine Oppegaard
Film Institution Rep.
Erik Smith Meyer
Film Director
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