Kraftidioten

Seems January went by in a flash, I did see some films and finished off a lovely book by Elizabeth George, but I never got around to writing about them.

WiseMan had some students over this evening to watch Scandinavian films, and they chose Kraftidioten ("Power Idiots", in German Einer nach dem anderen, one after another, the English title given is "In order of disappearance"). This is a brutal film that is quite funny at the same time, mostly poking fun at Norwegians. It was shown at the Berlinale in 2014, but it had been impossible to get tickets, they sold out within seconds.

"Immigrant" Nils (he's from Sweden) has been chosen citizen of the year. His son gets mixed up with some cocaine dealers, and is killed by mistake. Nils was planning on killing himself, but by chance he hears the name of one of those involved, and he decided to mete out justice himself. Each one gives up the name of the next (one after another) one, just before getting himself killed.

We counted 22 murders before the credits rolled, but maybe we missed one or two. Bruno Ganz plays the elderly Serbian mafia boss Papa, Norwegian actor Pål Sverre Hagen is the vegan Norwegian gangster "The Count", and Stellan Skarsgård (who has played in half the Swedish films released since the 70s) is Nils, all three are great actors. But even the minor characters get a chance to shine, usually just before they are offed.

And then there were the snowplows. We lost count, but there are magnificent scenes of snowplows spraying billows of snow (and the odd car or body) off the roads.

As one of the students noted, this is a film to watch at least twice so that you catch all of innuendos!