Den Norske Filmfestivalen i Haugesund

Antoine (17) is trapped in an ocean of negative thoughts that affect his entire existence in Norway. He tries to suppress it, but his destructive behavior pulls him further and further into the deep.

Between the darkness of her dying mother’s hotel room and the heat of the sun outside, 17-year-old Fanny is split between grief and lust during a Summer holiday in Southern Europe.

When a crisis strikes, we reveal our true colours.

Lykke, the 13-year old daughter of a Labour Party politician, accidentally kills Jamie, the son of a high profile rightwing politician. The film traces the aftermath of the accident, and examines the implications of having, and being, a child in contemporary Norway.

Beware of Children traces the dramatic aftermath of a tragic event in a middle class suburb of Oslo. During a break in school 13 year-old Lykke, the daughter of a prominent Labour Party member, seriously injures her classmate Jamie, the son of a high profile right-wing politician. When Jamie later dies in hospital, contradicting versions of what actually happened risks making a difficult and traumatic situation worse. Was it only innocent play behind? Liv, the school’s principal and the secret lover of Jamie’s father, must find the strength to confront a community in distress, and her own highly conflicted emotions.

Binti is an entertaining and approachable film full of colour, friendship and love. Twelve-year-old Binti dreams of making a name for herself as a vlogger and becoming a star like her idol Tatyana. But when they risk being deported as illegal aliens in a police raid, she and her father are forced on the run. Binti meets Elias and they become friends. While Binti uses her vlog to help Elias with his “Save the Okapi Club”, she hatches her perfekt plan: if her dad marries Elias’s single mother, they could stay in Belgium forever.

Swedish/Norwegian half-sisters Tuva and Ida are winter-diving along a remote part of the Norwegian coast line. By the end of the dive, Tuva is trapped 100 feet below the surface by a rockslide, which also buries their equipment on land, their car and phones. They are cut off from the rest of the world. In a desperate fight to save her sister, Ida is pushed to her limits, and when everything seems to be lost, it turns out to be more than a fight for survival. The Swedish film Breaking Surface is filmed on location in Norway, including Narvik and Lofoten, and has beautiful scenery from nature, impressive underwater sequences and claustrophobic tension.

A young couple enters the thriving world of camming to fulfill their ambitions and reignite their stalling relationship. However, when things don’t go as planned, an unexpected metamorphosis of flesh and fantasy occurs. Cam Boy is a thrilling vision of modern love in a digital world.

In a provincial suburb, three neighbours come to terms with the consequences of the new world of social media. Marie, who lives off her husband’s family allowance, is afraid of losing her son’s respect because of a sex tape. Bertrand can’t say no to advertising calls and is fighting to protect his daughter, who is being bullied online. Christine, after losing everything because of her addiction to TV series, wonders why her rating as an Uber driver is not taking off. These three lone fighters are incapable of finding a solution to their problems on their own – until they join forces to declare war on the tech giants.

Delete History captures our 21st century reality in a way few other films have: there is neither history nor are there stories, neither left-wing nor right. Instead of a physical boss who enforces our obedience, an invisible, data-spewing cloud controls us and devours our identities. Delete History is an empathetic tribute to those who are “left behind”, who hold up a mirror to us all and our perceptions of reality.

On the surface level, everything seems perfect. 19-year-old Mirjam is the stepdaughter of the charismatic pastor in the congregation Freedom. As the world champion of disco freestyle dance, and leader of the free church’s youth group, she is the pride of the church. But during the World Championship she collapses on the dance floor, and the defeat awakens doubt and unrest in her. At home she is told that she must believe more, have stronger faith. Mirjam tries, but her body fails. In the search for answers of where her problems come from, and in frustration of not being seen, she is pulled towards a more conservative congregation. She joins their summer camp in secret.

Disco is the second film from director and screenwriter Jorunn Myklebust Syversen. With a raw realism she depicts environments that exists, but are rarely represented in the media. Her first film The Tree Feller (2017) was nominated for two Amanda Awards and received acclaim from Norwegian critics.

This experimental documentary takes on the topic of the invasion of cruise ships in Stavanger, Norway, and the pollution it creates. Shot entirely in black and white and without voiceover, this unique short film immerses us in the absurdity of huge cruise ships occupying the Norwegian coast’s landscape. A timely film with a strong message.

Are you going to find your “real” parents? Therese and Nora have no plans on doing that. They are both adopted from India and came to Norway as babies but have never talked about adoption together. Nora invites Therese inside a box. Here they paint their skin white, teach each other to fight, and try to figure out why it’s so difficult to say out loud “I am adopted!”

Anja is living with her cohabitant Tomas in a big family with their children and stepchildren. On the day before Christmas, Anja gets an incurable diagnosis. Alone in her grief and fear, Anja admits to the necessity of having Tomas’s full support and help. During the Christmas week, the couple are thrown into a crash course in mutual trust and a common fight to handle the unexpected diagnosis. Can they learn to love each other again through the crisis after a long life together?

Hope premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and got rave reviews from the international press. It has also received critical acclaim here in Norway. The film is based on the director’s own experiences.

When Johan’s dad passed away, he decided to move back into what himself describes as a junkyard accompanied by an overgrown jungle. His father, a peterpanian  herbalist who never grew up for the good & bad, and with an unhealthy relationship to alcohol, becomes more present as Johan walks pass the half dying plants inside the great greenhouse while talking about his dream this summer; To turn this pile of garbage into a festival dedicated to his father. As most things, it’s easier said than done, but with friends it’s at least a whole lot funnier than without.

Dounia is in love with Erik. He wants to take the step further in the relationship, and it’s time for Dounia to introduce her Norwegian boyfriend to her Muslim family. Can Dounia’s two worlds be united?

In a near future, a young girl is meeting her donor-father for the first time. Together they go through experimental therapy exercises, in the hope of making their relation more than just a theory.

The film opens a window into the lives of two brothers Peshawa and Komar, at the Drevsjø asylum center (Norway). Through an observational lens we will learn the dreams of the brothers. Furthermore, we get to know their hopes, which become a feeling of loss due to the uncertainty of their situation.

Rohat is a young hip-hop artist that is currently finalizing his first official album. His album is dedicated to his father that recently passed away. Rohat has many unanswered questions, both from himself and from his father. Rohat tries to process his loss through his music, and also to be honest about his own feelings.

The space film genre is so saturated with white (American) men that it’s refreshing to see a film like Proxima, where a mother-daughter relationship takes center stage. Director Alice Winocour has already received worldwide acclaim for her 2015 film Mustang, a coming-of-age drama about five Turkish sisters. In Proxima, Eva Green plays French astronaut Sarah, who lives alone with her eight-year-old daughter. When Sarah is chosen as the only woman in a grueling year-long space mission, it creates chaos between mother and daughter. Proxima explores both Sarah’s psychological pressure and her physical strain, and is a perfect mix of melodrama and documentary-like depiction of an astronaut’s life, epic in scope and interpersonal in its thematic exploration.

A teenage girl and her band of misfits form a young group of neo-Nazis. The friends are like family. They live by their own rules and push the limits of morality, but eventually loyalty is put to the test.

December, 1942. Four children are on the run. Sarah and Daniel are jews about to be deported, but hide in the cellar of Otto and Gerda, until they are discovered and their parents are arrested. Otto and Gerda decide to help their new friends. Through snowy woods the four children escape from German soldiers. It’s a life or death attempt to get to faraway neutral Sweden. Luckily they meet good friends on the way. But who can they really trust?

We’ve told the stories, again and again, in films, books and papers, but always for adults. Finally we have a WW2 movie for the whole family. The Crossing is an exciting film about trust and friendship, about fear and the great bravery of small people.

The Personal History of David Copperfield puts a fresh, funny, and utterly charming spin on Charles Dickens’ classic, proving some stories truly are timeless. All his life, from birth to childhood, adolescence to adulthood, the kind-hearted David Copperfield is surrounded by friendship, evil, poverty and wealth, and meets a long list of outstanding characters in Victorian England. David wants to be a writer, and it turns out his search for family, friends, romance and status is the most captivating story of all. Director Armando Iannucci, the master of satire, has made films like The Death of Stalin and the series Veep, and this film keeps the distinctive humor he is known for, with an added layer of warmth.

This film is a portrait of an artist and a portrait of a mortal disease. Lene Marie Fossen was known as a world-class photographer who suffered from anorexia. She’s had a unique project: to expose the illness, put all its horrors on display. Expose the shame, confront the illness, break its rules to survive. Her photography art is naked and honest. Through Lene Marie’s photos, we get a unique perception of what it is like to live with the disease. Her images are an important part of the film, they’re heading out into the world, famous galleries want to exhibit them. Lene Marie always had an internal glow from which she creates, no matter the adversity. That changed in the last year. She died on October 22nd, after seeing the finished film. Along with her parents, she decided that the film should be released as planned, it was important to Lene Marie that her story could mean something for others.

Nina and Madeleine are neighbors, but they are also passionate lovers. Nina has always lived alone, while Madeleine has two children and grandchildren. Her husband has passed away. Now she can finally live her life to the fullest. But only almost. She has not yet told her family that she is in love with another woman.

Passion and love are not reserved for young people. The heart does not stop beating violently when you meet the right one, even though your age says that you have reached your autumn years. We all grow older, but we refuse to grow old.

In the roles of Nina and Madeleine, we meet two of Europe’s leading actresses. Nina is played by German Barbara Sukowa who is known from films by Fassbinder, Schlöndorff and von Trotta (Hannah Arendt). Martine Chevallier, one of France’s finest performing artists, excels in the role of Madeleine. Their interaction is sparking and wonderful.

Undine lectures about city planning in Berlin. She lives in a small apartment by Alexanderplatz, has a master’s degree in history and works as a freelancer. But behind the facade of a modern life, an old myth is hiding: If the man Undine loves betrays her, she must kill him and return to the sea. So when her boyfriend Johannes leaves Undine for someone else, she doesn’t have much choice – until diver Christoph suddenly shows up. The two of them fall happily and innocently in love, but can Undine escape from the myth? Christian Petzold won the award for Best Director during the 2012 Berlinale for Barbara, and since then he has given us the brilliant Phoenix and Transit. For Undine, lead actress Paula Beer won the Best Actress award in Berlin.

Dream and realism appear in a sensuous film about a young woman who’s searching for her own nature. A desire to find freedom, far away from the ordinary life.

17-year-old Ida suddenly becomes orphaned when her mother dies in a car accident. Reluctantly, she moves in with her Aunt Bodil, who lives with her sons. Ida is warmly welcomed by the small family – where the matriarch Bodil manages both the house and their criminal activities with a tough and stern hand. In the beginning, Ida experiences her family as inclusive and exciting, and is unwillingly drawn ever deeper into the underworld until one day it goes too far.

Sidse Babett Knudsen shines in the role as a heartfelt and brutal matriarch, in this hard-boiled thriller that is a debut of the talented Jeanette Nordahl.

Gertrud and her friends have always had a good time together through the years. But as her husband’s illness gets worse, and she finds herself on the edge of losing her job, her friends plan to put a smile on her face again.