NORWEGIAN DREAM will be screened at the 20th filmPOLSKA (10-17.9.) as part of the special "Poland x Scandinavia".

NOR/PL/D 2023
D: Leiv Igor Devold
97 min, original language
B: Justyna Bilik
C: Patryk Kin
S: Ida Kolsto, Tomasz Mączka & Oyvinn Haugrud Kastnes
M: Florian Tessloff
D: Hubert Miłkowski, Karl Bekele Steinland, Edyta Torhan, Jakub Sierenberg, Izabella Dudziak and others.

Secluded lakes, gleaming orange-pink salmon, rugged cliffs, majestic fjords, colorful wooden houses, the soundtrack of the sea - this is how you dream of Norway. But Robert's "Norwegian dream" is more reminiscent of a nightmare. The young man with the steel-blue eyes from Białystok didn't come here as a tourist, but to get his family out of the red. The work in the fish factory is hard and unfulfilling, the workers' accommodation is spartan and the tone among the many Polish workers is rough. In addition, the employer uses the legal gray areas for social dumping and cheats on overtime pay, among other things.

That alone would be enough for a social drama in the vein of Ken Loach's IT'S A FREE WORLD. But Robert has other worries too. Because Ivar, the factory owner's adopted son, not only shows him the ropes, lets him drive around in his vintage car and organizes a side income for him in Trondheim. The attractive man also turns Robert's head, awakening both fear and the memory of a traumatic experience. Because in the harsh world of factory workers, homophobia and xenophobia are no strangers. The situation comes to a head and Robert has to make decisions. [Rainer Mende]