Hawaii, Oslo

It is already some time ago that Erik Poppe won several major prizes with his feature début Schpaaa (1998). This beautiful, disturbing impression of a bunch of kids from Oslo who go off the straight and narrow revealed his great experience in the television, music and commercial world. Now Poppe is back with what has been described as the best Norwegian feature in years: Hawaii, Oslo. A film with several storylines about different characters who eventually all come together. The concept is directly reminiscent of benchmarks such as Short Cuts and Magnolia, but Poppe managed to tell a very fresh and vital fairy-tale. Hawaii, Oslo follows the kleptomaniac Leon and his childhood sweetheart Asa, who see each other again after 10 years. The film also follows Trygve, Leon’s imprisoned brother, who wants to flee to Hawaii in his few hours of birthday leave. And a desperate couple, Frode and Milla, who can only save their sick child with an expensive operation in America. Then we have Vidar, the male nurse who sees the future when he’s asleep and finally Bobbie-Pop, a suicidal pop star who has been reduced to anonymity. Everything and everyone comes together in an inventive plot set on the hottest day of the year in Oslo. Not too fast, not too slow, convincing and gripping, in a film with the intensity of a loud scream for love. (SdH)