Two Norwegian films, one of them short, have been chosen to compete at the prestigious Cannes International Film Festival next month. It’s the latest in a series of international recognition for Norwegian film production.
Director Joachim Trier’s new film, Oslo 31. august, was selected to be shown on the Un Certain Regard program. It will make for a special world premiere for Trier’s second film, which is about a day in the life of a young man at an existential low point.
“This is great,” Trier told newspaper Aftenposten. “I’m honored to be in the same competition with people like Bruno Dumont and Kim Ki-duk. And as the film-lover I am, it will be so valuable to travel to Cannes for the first time.”
Also selected for Cannes was the short film Kjøttsår, directed by Lisa Marie Gamlem who thought herself that the film was almost “too Norwegian” to be selected for international competition. It’s about the proverbial morning-after for a young teenager who got drunk at a party, and was shot in the small mountain town of Voss with an amateur cast speaking nynorsk, one of the two official Norwegian languages that’s mostly used in outlying areas.
“This is wonderful, and a bit surprising,” Gamlem said. The Cannes festival runs from May 11-22.
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