Hamsun

This Norwegian-Swedish-Danish-German coproduction directed by Jan Troell is quite a compelling watch.

Max von Sydow playing a great role as the old writer In his early 80'ies. The Norwegian Nobel laureate has written some profoundly world-renowned novels made into films since 1916.

This film takes on Hamsun's legacy as an anti-British and pro-nazi spokesman. It tells the naïve older man's belief in the 3rd Reich, but with Norway as a sovereign nation. He meets up with Hitler, who he admires, to ask him to save Norway from Reichskommisar Terboven.

Following the last years of Hamsun's life (he died in 1952) this film gives an upright depiction of the national hero ruining his reputation with his nazi sympathies.

The film lets Max von Sydow and Danish Gitte Nørby as his wife Marie Sydow speak their own native languages, even if both Knut and Marie was Norwegian. This is it first off-outting but you soon forget it. Why it's done? Maybe making it easier to accept that he was a traitor?

In Scandinavian filmography this is a must watch.