Helge Jordal Movies

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, All Movie Guide

In this thoughtful Scandinavian drama, a teenage boy wrestles with his sexuality and learns that most of his deepest fears were unfounded. Sebastian is almost 17 when he figures out that he is a homosexual. Though he lives with wonderful, stable parents and has a good-hearted sister, he finds himself wracked with turmoil and suddenly withdraws from them all. The more they try to understand why, the more distant Sebastian becomes. Things get worse when he falls in love with the handsome Ulf, who comes from an unstable, tempestuous home. Sebastian realizes he is lucky, but still can't help but become irritated when he brings Ulf home for dinner. His parents are too nice and this quietly infuriates their son. Eventually they leave the two boys alone in the house. Sebastian have great fun doing teenage guy stuff, but then they take a bath together and it is then that Sebastian tries to kiss Ulf. The latter is confused by the gesture and quickly pulls away, making feel Sebastian feel even worse. Soon afterward, the even more pained Sebastian finally comes out to his parents who despite their love and support are still deeply hurt. Despite their own suffering, the parents remain determined to love and support their son, something that surprises and comforts Sebastian. Even his sister offers a few words of encouragement. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on a true story, the bleak period piece Oxen was co-written and directed by Ingmar Bergman's longtime cinematographer Sven Nykvist. In the small village of Småland in the late 1860s, Helge Roos (Stellan Skarsgård) works as a farmer on an estate belonging to Svenning Gustafsson (Lennart Hjulström) and his wife (Liv Ullmann). Plagued by a terrible famine, Helge illegally kills one of the Gustaffson's last oxen so his own family can eat. He and his wife, Elfrida (Ewa Fröling), feel guilty about it, but the meat keeps them alive through the winter. When he tries to sell the hide in the spring, a clergyman (Max Von Sydow) finds out and encourages him to confess. The judge sentences Helge to a life of manual labor at the state prison for his crime. When he is finally pardoned and released after six years, he returns home to Elfrida to find out that she has been supporting the family by performing sexual services, which has resulted in the birth of another child. In the 1970s, Von Sydow and Ullmann appeared together in a set of films also dealing with the Swedish famine in Jan Troell's The Emigrants and The New Land. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

In order to try and patch up their failing marriage, Annika (Lena Olin) and Klas (Stellan Skarsgard) have purchased the "S/Y Gladjen," a shipwrecked yacht, at bargain basement prices, and have succeeded in fixing it up. They intend to take a year off from their lives and sail around the world in it, repairing the damage to their union that was caused by the death of their child. In the course of getting ready to sail, Annika discovers that the yacht's previous owners had suffered a similar loss, and begins to investigate. This mystery is based on the novel S/Y Gladjen by Inger Alfven. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Two divers work to raise the German battleship Blucher in this action thriller. They battle the authorities, cops, and company executives who were supposedly in cahoots with the Nazis when the ship went down on April 9th, 1940. Helge Jordal plays the diver Vidar Vestheim, who teams up with the pretty female reporter Linda Welder (Hege Schoyen) against a North Sea oil company that's trying to drive a nuclear power conglomeration out of business with a glut of oil drilling. The highlights of the film are the underwater scenes. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this adventure film, Borr (Helge Jordal) is an outlaw who helps a 14-year-old girl (Vera Holte) with amnesia after she is shipwrecked. In spite of the danger of being caught by the police, Borr heroically helps the girl try to discover who she is and where she came from. Per Oscarsson, Frode Rasmussen, and Katja Medboe co-star with Kalle Oeby and Sigmund Saverud in this uneven production. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this quiet film about a teenager and her problems, Marianne (Gerd Brotnow) is an endearing and innocent young woman who grapples with loneliness and finds a solution that, in the end, brings her grief. One of her difficulties, in spite of her beauty, is that she lacks self-confidence because she is overweight and as a consequence does not have any sort of social life. Her one outlet is a constant exchange of cassette tapes back and forth to a friend she has never met in person, and who lives in a remote area of the county. When Marianne hears that he is coming for a visit to Oslo, she is attacked by fears that he will reject her once he sees her, and the opposite happens. While she spends an idyllic weekend in her first romantic liaison, the result is a shock that leaves her in a dilemma much worse than simple loneliness.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

It is 1948, and Camilla (Nina Knapskog) is a seven-year-old girl living in a rundown neighborhood in the city of Bergen with two parents who are at odds with each other. Her father (Helge Jordal) once had a business that went bankrupt, and now has a lowly shoe repair shop -- though appearances are deceiving, because he kept aside a large sum of money from his bankruptcy suit and has it stored away in a safe place while he waits for the time he will need it. He hopes that time will come soon enough, since he relies on his stash of wealth to get him and a mistress off to Canada. Camilla's mother (Vibeke Lockkeberg -- also the director and writer of this film) not only knows where her husband has hidden his cash, she has secretly moved it. Little Camilla knows both secrets, but is not about to talk. Her parents' fighting marginates her, they ignore her because they are too much involved in their own problems to glance at hers. Yet they compensate at times by showing that they do care after all. Caught in this complex push and pull of emotions and behavior, Camilla finds some solace in the companionship of her new friend Svein (Kenneth Johansen), another seven-year-old beset by his own problems -- his mother is on the brink of being declared unfit, an action that would send Svein to an orphanage. Camilla's inherent good spirit gets her through the rough spots, and hopefully, some of that spirit will rub off on her warring parents. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Though they were friends in school, the three women in this movie have not kept in touch. When they meet at an alumni meeting, they go off on a three-day jaunt together. They play and joke and discuss their lives, staying in the apartment of one of the girl's lovers (he has gone away briefly). ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide