Sons of Norway (Jens Lien, 2011): Norway

Reviewed by Andrea Uttenthal. Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival, 2012.

It’s not easy to rebel, when your dad wants to join the party… Sons of Norway  is a lively, entertaining and insightful quirky comedy/drama directed by Jens Lien in 2011. It is one of the funniest and most charming coming-of-age stories of the Nordic region since Fucking Åmål (1998).

The year is 1978 and 14-year-old Nikolaj (Åsmund Høeg) is living an idyllic life with his younger brother and his archetypal and politicized hippie parents; the energetic and free spirited Magnus (Sven Nordin) and the angelic Lone (Sonja Richter). When Lone suddenly is killed in a car accident, her husband falls into a deep depression, and isn’t able to take good care of his sons. His youngest son is sent to live with his sister and her husband, while Nikolaj is left with his hippie father. Nikolaj is a quiet boy, who has nowhere to turn until his best friend proudly slaps his latest purchase on the turntable: The Sex Pistols’ album “Never Mind the Bollocks” and the spirit of punk rock. Inspired by the English punk band, Nikolaj starts a band of his own with his friends. They cultivate their style into punk, which means new haircuts, creative piercings (safety pin through the cheek), decorating their clothes with safety pins, cutting holes in it and sewing a burned flag on the back of their jackets. From here Nikolaj begins his rebellion behaving outrageous, experimenting with drugs and putting up with the community and norms, which turns everything and everyone upside down since it affects a bunch of people in the small town outside of Oslo.

The real rub, and what makes much of the comedy, is when Nikolaj’s father, Magnus, partially snaps out of his depression. Instead of disciplining Nikolaj, as he should, Magnus encourages him. He always stands up for his son, supporting him unconditionally, even when Nikolaj decides to stop giving a damn about nothing. It may be hard to rebel, but it’s even tougher when your father is listening to the same records as you. Magnus is a glaring exception in a community where equality and conformity is the norm. He doesn’t care about what people think of him and his family and is ready to help to his son and his friends’ in their rebellion.

The spoken language is norwegian and danish, which was fun for me since I’m from Denmark and understand norwegian. This film is so typical Scandinavian! The time capsulizing of the late seventies is just great!

Director Jens Lien knows how to interest the viewer. There’s lots of laughs, especially around the mad and free spirited father and the casting is great all the way through. Music in this film plays an important role. Not just the boys’ punk band, but it’s used to form the mood of the story constantly changing. The film was executive produced by former Sex Pistols’ leader John Lydon, who also plays a pivotal role in this film, which pays tribute to punk rock.

Most of all, Sons of Norway is the story of an unusual father-son relationship, and about the strength of the bonds we sometimes do our best to rip apart. This combined with rebellion, the suburban hell and the struggle between freaks and punks are what makes this film so funny. “Freedom is shit. Shit is freedom” concludes Nikolaj. The film is especially focused on the confusion of growing up in the midst of emotional trauma when adult figures are incapable of providing any sort of guidance or boundaries.

If you want to watch something different than usual, this is definitely what you’re looking for. I wouldn’t say this is a feel-good comedy, since it’s is kind of tragic and serious, but it’s definitely a fun story and the characters are too. And if you’re into punk that will make you like this film even more. Jens Lien did a great job with this film!