I generally avoid regional showcases like the first Scandinavian Film Festival. By the time I’ve said anything about them, they’re usually long gone.
And if some of the festival hits get a general release later in the year, I prefer to review them then.
But it’s lean pickings this week, and frankly the films on offer at the Scandi Festival all look refreshingly different from their Hollywood rivals. The one I picked, mostly at random, came from my current favourite Scandinavian movie country, Norway.
Photo: Supplied
From the country that brought us the delightful Worst Person in the World, comes Everybody Hates Johan.
It must be a Norwegian thing, to give your movie an off-putting name.
We meet the Johan in Everybody Hates Johan as an infant, during the War. His parents take him with them when they go out blowing up bridges.
The carefree Grande family are hated by the official Resistance because they don’t wait to be told to blow up bridges, after an appropriate amount of discussion and planning. They just blow them up.
Until one day both parents are accidentally killed by a German mine.
Johan Grande is adopted by his aunt and uncle, but he inherits his parents’ unpopularity. Everyone hates Johan.
Everyone, that is, apart from the girl next door, Solvor. She and Johan get on very well, despite her parents’ disapproval.
But that ends with a bang too. Solvor begs Johan to teach her his family business – blowing stuff up.
But she makes a rookie mistake. Is that explosive still smoking, or has it gone out? Don’t go and have a look, Solvor!
After the explosion, Johan is quickly smuggled out of the country and sent off to America, where they have plenty of buildings that need blowing up. And then 15 years pass. Johan finally returns to see the now invalid Solvor.
I just mention this because Johan’s line to his aging aunt is my favourite movie line this year. “She’s still mine, no matter how blown up she was,” he says. His aunt responds with the almost as good: “We’re all a little blown up, aren’t we?”
And if you enjoyed The Worst Person in the World as much as I did, you’ll know that this story is just getting started.
The Norwegians have a Viking attitude to story-telling, it seems to me. They assemble a hardy crew, set out over choppy waters, and go where the wind and elements take them.
Along the way Johan and Solvor try and decide whether their saga is a long, very slow romantic comedy, or a pitched – if drawn out – battle with each other.
I’ve never liked you, says Solvor. You’re not my type. Is she lying? Johan clearly hasn’t a clue.
For all that Everybody Hates Johan is so Norwegian – deadpan comedy and long, long storylines that only make sense when they get there – I found myself reminded of old Danish films of the Dogme era.
The same combination of cool dialogue, and deceptively warm-hearted characters…
As I said about The Worst Person in the World, I recommend ignoring the title of Everybody Hates Johan. It’s a little charmer, and I suspect that’s the case with the other Scandi Film Festival titles. It’s not all noir up by the Arctic Circle, it seems.
