Maria Bonnevie Movies

On the heels of his award-winning 2003 feature debut The Return, filmmaker Andrei Zvyagintsev struggles to avoid the sophomore slump with this art-house crime drama concerning two brothers struggling to keep their lives together in the face of certain disaster. Soon after extracting a bullet from his brother's arm, Alex (Konstantin Lavroneko) relocates his family from the city to his father's old house in the countryside. As the family settles into their rustic existence, Alex's wife Vera (Maria Bonnevie) reveals that she is pregnant by another man. Enraged by his wife's announcement, Alex consults with his brother and demands that Vera terminate the pregnancy. When the forced abortion goes horribly awry and Alex's brother suffers a severe heart attack, a confrontation with the man Alex believes to have seduced his wife send events quickly spiraling out of control. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Gunnar Vikene's dark comedy Himmelfall (Falling Sky) concerns itself with patients and doctors at a mental institution in the days before Christmas. The head psychiatrist (Kim Bodina) is impotent and his wife (Hildegun Riise) is engaged in an affair with a cabbie (Endre Hellestveit). Reidar (Kristoffer Joner) is a patient with a senile mother and a firm belief that a meteor is going to slam into the hospital. He is in love with Juni, another patient whose parents are celebrating the holidays on vacation without her. Complications arise when Juni and the cabbie meet. Falling Sky was screened at the Gothenburg Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, 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

In this charming Scandinavian family movie, director Ella Lemhagen spins a tale about a youth coming to terms with his identity and his single mom. Eight-year-old half-Greek Tsatsiki lives in a Stockholm suburb with his attractive mother, who dreams of being a rock star. Tsatsiki longs to meet his Greek father, believing that he is an octopus fisherman in the Mediterranean. In preparation for a future meeting with his absent dad, he practices swimming at the local gym. Meanwhile, Tsatsiki's mom, who was dating her band's bass player, has fallen for a dashing young cop who is a boarder in her house. Tsatsiki, Morsan och Polisenfilm was screened at the 1999 Haugesund Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

A group of messianic pilgrims abandon their native Sweden and emigrate to Palestine. This fact-based episodic Swedish drama looks at the events leading up to the trek and the immigrants' experiences after they arrive in the holy land. The story begins in Sweden and is introduced by the death of Big Ingmar, the leader of a small farming community. Shortly thereafter, his eldest daughter Karin sends Ingmar's namesake son to be raised by another family so she can control the family farm. Years pass and Ingmar grows up to fall in love with his beauteous "step-sister" Gertrud. But the romance never fully blooms, for Ingmar must leave to earn the money he needs to buy his father's farm back from Karin. About this time, the local village is plagued by a series of ominous disasters that begin with Karin's sudden paralysis. In the midst of the ensuing superstition and chaos, a charismatic, hellfire-and-brimstone preacher shows up, and some family members begin converting to his cause. Karin becomes a true follower when the preacher prays and she is "miraculously" healed. Ingmar eventually returns to find a very different village. With not enough money to buy the farm, he marries a wealthy young woman. Broken-hearted Gertrud immediately joins the preacher's cult and decides to follow him to Palestine to await Christ's Second Coming. Three months after she leaves, a recently divorced Ingmar arrives in Palestine to try to win her back. That is but one story line among many that transpire as the pilgrims struggle with survival in their strange new homeland. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Filmed in Scandanavia, The Polar Bear King is a visualization of an old folk tale. A handsome prince is slated to marry the less-than-attractive Queen of Summerland. He refuses, whereupon she calls upon her skills as a sorceress. Transformed into a polar bear, the luckless prince must seek out a human to help him break the spell. Filling the bill is a beautiful princess, who joins the hirsute prince on a perilous journey back to Summerland. Though ostensibly family fare, The Polar Bear King does carry a PG rating, so please exercise your own judgement before screening this one for the kids. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi