In Norwegian this film is called 'Ti kniver i hjertet' ('Ten Knives In The Heart', my translation) and might possibly allude to the different personal defeats and emotional arousals the main character Otto (Martin Dahl Garfalk) is afflicted with in the course of time during which the story unveils?
The film is built on a book by Lars Saabye Christensen by the name of 'The Boy Who Wanted to Be One of the Boys' (my translation from 'Gutten som ville være en av gutta').
The events takes place in Oslo during the 1960's and we get to meet the main character Otto, a boy who tries to be as 'tough' as the other boys. Partly due to the fact that he is smaller purely physically and not sharing the same 'macho ideals', he finds it hard to become a 'part of the gang'.
He is never selected for the football team - although he is eager to participate and tries to attract the attention of the coach - and the closest he gets to the football team is when his mother (actress Kjersti Holmen) washes their clothes and when he is a 'ball boy'.
During the summer vacation his best friend in school goes on vacation while Otto is forced to help his father Edvard (Reidar Sørensen) in his work as a remover.
This summer will become one of the most turbulent ones for Otto and this after meeting a 'mysterious' young man by the name of Frank (Jan Devo Kornstad). Frank is older and superficially tougher than Otto and he gets Otto to do things the latter actually don't want to do, beginning with throwing a stone at the referee during a football match. From this point on, Frank takes Otto on a drive mentally, physically - and in a car.
On their odyssey they become friends, though Otto finds Frank somewhat strange.
To the viewer it might seem as a homoerotic game but is it really...?
In a lake they find the corps of a young woman being reported missing and this scares Frank too, not least as the car they use is stolen and might be connected to the dead woman.
They decide not to tell anyone but when the principal in the school talks about the missing young woman, Otto's conscience nags him. On the same time we get to see the nonchalant behaviour from the other pupils, obviously not believing that this could happen to them and therefore not taking in this information, not least since they're focused on the summer holidays.
Otto's father is a rather impotent person, among other things displayed by the fact that he hesitates to intervene when his wife, on a pick nick is being chat-up by some young men.
His mental or moral impotence is complemented by a physical when a falls under a piano when moving it from an apartment, making him paralyzed, trapped in a wheal chair.
On the same time Otto becomes wittness to when Frank initiate a relationship with his mother's best friend, miss Sager and also seemingly trying to approach Otto's mother.
The latter makes him reevaluate Frank.
In the same house as Otto's family a man by the name of Wiik (Bjørn Floberg), keeps an eye on everything and everyone and although he verbally displays a high moral (whatever that might be), he is also interested in miss Sager.
This leads to a conflict between him and Frank, leading to that Frank is imprisoned for assault and battery.
When visiting Frank in the prison Otto gets to know who he really is.
The film contains a lot of symbolic material of course and very much is centered towards the question about personal moral and courage, the inner and outer toughness and the superfluous hunt for recognition, either by individuals or groups.
Within this the film deals with questions about 'manhood' and what this might be, friendship between men and women, men and men and women and women, love and lust and the consequences of judging someone or something from without external criterias, as we so often tend to do.
The acting is mostly good and not exaggerated with a structure that leaves the viewer uncertain of who the characters, on a profound level, actually are and where the story is heading.
The film is built on a book by Lars Saabye Christensen by the name of 'The Boy Who Wanted to Be One of the Boys' (my translation from 'Gutten som ville være en av gutta').
The events takes place in Oslo during the 1960's and we get to meet the main character Otto, a boy who tries to be as 'tough' as the other boys. Partly due to the fact that he is smaller purely physically and not sharing the same 'macho ideals', he finds it hard to become a 'part of the gang'.
He is never selected for the football team - although he is eager to participate and tries to attract the attention of the coach - and the closest he gets to the football team is when his mother (actress Kjersti Holmen) washes their clothes and when he is a 'ball boy'.
During the summer vacation his best friend in school goes on vacation while Otto is forced to help his father Edvard (Reidar Sørensen) in his work as a remover.
This summer will become one of the most turbulent ones for Otto and this after meeting a 'mysterious' young man by the name of Frank (Jan Devo Kornstad). Frank is older and superficially tougher than Otto and he gets Otto to do things the latter actually don't want to do, beginning with throwing a stone at the referee during a football match. From this point on, Frank takes Otto on a drive mentally, physically - and in a car.
On their odyssey they become friends, though Otto finds Frank somewhat strange.
To the viewer it might seem as a homoerotic game but is it really...?
In a lake they find the corps of a young woman being reported missing and this scares Frank too, not least as the car they use is stolen and might be connected to the dead woman.
They decide not to tell anyone but when the principal in the school talks about the missing young woman, Otto's conscience nags him. On the same time we get to see the nonchalant behaviour from the other pupils, obviously not believing that this could happen to them and therefore not taking in this information, not least since they're focused on the summer holidays.
Otto's father is a rather impotent person, among other things displayed by the fact that he hesitates to intervene when his wife, on a pick nick is being chat-up by some young men.
His mental or moral impotence is complemented by a physical when a falls under a piano when moving it from an apartment, making him paralyzed, trapped in a wheal chair.
On the same time Otto becomes wittness to when Frank initiate a relationship with his mother's best friend, miss Sager and also seemingly trying to approach Otto's mother.
The latter makes him reevaluate Frank.
In the same house as Otto's family a man by the name of Wiik (Bjørn Floberg), keeps an eye on everything and everyone and although he verbally displays a high moral (whatever that might be), he is also interested in miss Sager.
This leads to a conflict between him and Frank, leading to that Frank is imprisoned for assault and battery.
When visiting Frank in the prison Otto gets to know who he really is.
The film contains a lot of symbolic material of course and very much is centered towards the question about personal moral and courage, the inner and outer toughness and the superfluous hunt for recognition, either by individuals or groups.
Within this the film deals with questions about 'manhood' and what this might be, friendship between men and women, men and men and women and women, love and lust and the consequences of judging someone or something from without external criterias, as we so often tend to do.
The acting is mostly good and not exaggerated with a structure that leaves the viewer uncertain of who the characters, on a profound level, actually are and where the story is heading.
No comments:
Post a Comment