Bjørn Floberg Movies

A septuagenarian taking his penultimate voyage from Oslo to Bergen begins to mentally prepare for his final trip, but finds that sometimes things don't turn out as expected when he misses the last departure for the first time in 40 years. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

An aimless Oslo twentysomething attempts to reconcile the errors of his past while simultaneously taking control of his future in actor-turned-director Aksel Hennie's semi-autobiographical drama. David is a 25-year old with a broken family and little prospect for the future. Rather than face the stark reality of home life with a terminally ill father, a handicapped brother, and a distant mother, David spends most of his time hanging around an inner-city gym populated by small-time criminals. As David's father lies dying, the gym is raided by police, and David is taken to jail. In a last-ditch effort to make his way home and bid his father farewell, David betrays his friends. Though he does make it home, it's too little too late and David's father has already died, leaving his grieving mother unable to care for his ailing brother. As David comes to the realization that his family is the most important thing in life, his former friends hit back at him with a vengeance. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director Bent Hamer's comedy drama Salmer Fra Kjøkkenet (Kitchen Stories) is based on the real-life social experiments conducted in Sweden during the 1950s. In the years following WWII, a research institute sets out to modernize the home kitchen by observing a handful of rural Norwegian bachelors. In the small town of Landstad, middle-aged Isak (Joachim Calmeyer) is one such research subject who regrets ever agreeing to participate in the study. Nevertheless, he is observed by Folke (Tomas Norström), and the two develop a strange friendship until the observer becomes sick. This causes a problem with Folke's boss (Reine Brynolfsson) and Isak's friend Grant (Bjørn Floberg). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Ole Bornedal directs the drama I Am Dina, based on the novel by Herbjørg Wassmo. In Northern Norway during the 1860s, a little girl named Dina accidentally causes her mother's death. Overcome with grief, her father (Bjørn Floberg) refuses to raise her, leaving her in the care of the household servants. Dina grows up wild and unmanageable, with her only friend being the stable boy, Tomas (Hans Matheson). She summons her mother's ghost and develops a strange fascination with death as well as a passion for living. Family friend Jacob (Gérard Depardieu) encourages Dina's father to hire Lorch (Søren Sætter-Lassen), a tutor who introduces her to the cello. When Dina is old enough (played by Maria Bonnevie), she marries Jacob and moves to Reinsnes, a port he runs with his mother, Karen (Wenche Foss), and his stepsons Niels (Mads Mikkelsen) and Anders (Jørgen Langhelle). Niels doesn't like Dina's wild ways, or the fact that she has taken over accounting duties at Reinsnes. Dina's eccentric tendencies become even stronger, eventually leading Jacob into an accident of his own and bringing Tomas back into her life. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Gudny Halldorsdottir directs this slow, nuanced family drama about gnawing jealousy and destructive sibling rivalry. Rannveig (Ragnhildur Gisladottir) and Thurid (Tinna Gunnlaugsdottir) are grown daughters of a wealthy deacon in a remote corner of western Iceland. Thurid endures an unhappy marriage with two children while footloose and fancy-free Rannveig is sent to study in Copenhagen by her parents. While staying with family friends in that great teaming Danish metropolis, Rannveig is seduced by the couple's son Bjorn (Bjorn Floberg). Later it is revealed that Thurid bedded this same Bjorn years previously, and she still holds a torch for him. Upon her return to the windswept wilds of her native land, Rannveig reveals that she is pregnant. Seething with the bilious jealousy, Thurid quietly masterminds a scheme that will save the family's honor. The family announces that Rannveig is engaged to a lovely man in Denmark and schedules a wedding, yet when the alleged groom does not appear on the nuptial date, they tearfully announce that he died. Rannveig eventually gives birth to her love child. Thurid eventually succumbs to her white-hot envy and sells Rannveig's baby to the Danes. Later, their sibling relationship strained some by that kidnapping incident, Thurid shacks up with Bjorn while Rannveig has an illicit affair with a carpenter. This film was based on a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Halldor Laxness, the father of the director. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

One day while scuba diving off their grandfather's boat, teenage brothers Christian (Robert Hansen) and Ask (Ralf J. Hollander) discover the infamous German submarine U-461, which sank off the Danish coast at the end of the Second World War, killing everybody on board. After glimpsing the face of a living baby boy preserved inside a medical container in the vessel, Ask becomes haunted by the boy's spirit. Meanwhile, a group of salvage contractors led by a former Nazi (Baard Owe) will stop at nothing to get ahold of the ship's valuable cargo. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

Based on the novel by the pseudonymous "John W. Grow," this drama is the first feature to examine the unsolved murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, who was shot in February of 1986 as he walked through the center of Stockholm with his wife. Troubled police officer Roger (Mikael Persbrandt) is on the brink of a breakdown, and his pal Bo (Reine Brynolfsson) gets an order to find out the problem. Roger relates how he almost prevented Palme's murder, and the tale then flashes back to the beginnings of the conspiracy and the killer (Michael Kitchen) in Malta. While the novel fingers a leader in the Swedish business community as the manipulator of the murder, the film evades this point. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Norwegian filmmaker Erik Skjoldbjaerg makes his directorial debut with the psychological police drama Insomnia. Swedish homicide detective Jonas Engström (Stellan Skarsgård) and his partner, Erik Vik (Sverre Anker Ousdal), arrive in a small Northern Norwegian town to help the local police investigate the murder of a teenage girl. When Jonas finds the girl's backpack, he sets a trap for the killer near a remote shed. While waiting to make an ambush in the morning fog, Jonas accidentally shoots Erik. He knows it was only an accident, but he decides to keep it a secret because he could lose his job. Jonas chooses to carry on with his investigation while trying to cover up the evidence of Erik's death. Meanwhile, he's unable to get any sleep due to the constant sunlight of the Norwegian summer and his increasingly guilty conscience. His only help comes from highly intuitive local police officer Hilda Haugen (Gisken Armand), who begins to form her own doubts about Jonas. As he continues to lose his grip on the case at hand, he becomes dangerously close to the suspects, Jon Holt (Bjørn Floberg) and Frøya (Marianne O. Ulrichsen). Filmmaker Christopher Nolan directed the English-language remake of Insomnia in 2002 with Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Two Norwegian boys come of age in this dark drama with comic and tragic elements. The film is set in the 1960's. Naive Otto Olsen is the 16-year old son of working class parents. He is externally a very quiet boy, but internally something else abides. Otto is on a soccer team, but he is always on the bench. His deeper nature is revealed when a mysterious older boy dares Otto to throw a rock at the referee during a game. A friendship slowly begins between the two young men. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this tragicomic tale, an eleven-year-old boy from Norway struggles to grow up in the face of many daunting obstacles, including smothering parents, school bullies, and the sudden loss of his hair. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A mix of racial and ethnic prejudices as well as old-fashioned blackmail pit two couples against each other in this crime story from director Gianni Lepre. Bashir (Amjad Munir works in a low-level job in the kitchen of a restaurant that is not doing very well. One day he sees the owner of the restaurant deliberately setting it ablaze to collect needed financing from the insurance company. Bashir passes this interesting piece of knowledge onto his girlfriend Anne (Froydis Armand), a woman deeply in need of money herself if she wants to hang onto her house. Her brain may be soaked in alcohol on a regular basis, but Anne quickly realizes that the restaurant owner could be a gold mine to Bashir and herself. So she taunts and nags until Bashir does the deed, he lets the owner know what he wants. In response, the owner's wife (Torill Oyen) goads her husband into getting back at the would-be blackmailers in an escalating conflict in which someone has to lose.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi