Death at Oslo Central

The social drama follows in the footsteps of Lasse & Geir, only without the 1976 cult movie's idiosyncrasy and angle; the crime story draws inspiration from Christiane F or even Hard asfalt, but lacks tension and has an aura of puerility about it. Time has not been to kind to this Norwegian semi-classic, which was a considerable box-office success back in 1990 and won the Amanda Award for Best Children's or Youth Film in 1991. Seen today, it's hard to find exactly what merited that, except perhaps the success of the Ingvar Ambjørnsen novel it was adapted from, or the film's undoubtedly good intentions. Young Håvard Bakke gives the best among a host of otherwise rather affected performances. The actors get little help form the relatively inexperienced director Eva Isaksen, who seems to have been a little out of her depth with both the dramatic material as well as the action sequences towards the end. Followed by two sequels: Giftige løgner (1992), and De blå ulvene (1993), both helmed by different directors.