Boudewijn Koole is one of the best Dutch directors. His first feauture length film was "Kauwboy" (2012). After that he made two films situated in Scandinavia. "Beyond sleep" (2016), reviewed here, and "Disappearance" (2017).
"Beyond sleep" is an adaptation of a novel by the well known Dutch writer Willem Frederik Hermans (1921 - 1995). Fate messing up with even the most careful kind of planning is one of the recurrent themes in Hermans novels. In "Beyond sleep" a student (Alfred played by Reinout Scholten van Aschat) is looking for evidence for the theory of his deceased father. Being busy with other things he missed the evidence that is practically happening under his nose.
Fate making fun of planning is however (in my opinion) not the main theme of the film. The main theme is suspicion. Alfred is on an expedition with three Norwegian fellow students. Gradually he discovers that a Norwegian professor has rediculed the theory of his father that he tries to prove in his thesis. Can he still trust his fellow expedition companions or are they influenced by this professor?
The suspicion has en ever increasing impact on Alfreds psyche as also the midsummer night sun and the insomnia take their toll. In this respect the film resembles "Insomnia" (1997, Erik Skjoldbjærg & 2002, Christopher Nolan).
Koole succeeds in visualising the changing mood of Alfred by increasingly using close ups where at the beginning of the film wide overwiews over the Nordic landscape dominated. Sidney Lumet used a different but related technique in "12 angry men" (1957), making the film ever more claustrophobic.
