Two green feathers. One toxic love. Norwegian cinema's most devastating emotional cage match.
When Edvarda arrives at the little Norwegian village, to stay with some family, she find the Lt., Thomas Glahn, very interesting. Soon they fall in love. It's a very passionate relationship, but this leads to problems. Both of them are very strong in their opinions, and both are behaving a little strange. Love turns to hate, and instead of doing all they can to please each other, they do all they can to hurt the other person psychological. They both do a great job, and what began as a love story turns into a sad and depressing story of two ruined persons. The story is told by Thomas Glahn from his "exile" in Thailand, where he in the beginning of the movie receives two green feathers from Edvarda.
Acting
Gråbøl's ice-fire performance will haunt you.
Cinematography
Norwegian landscapes as emotional prison bars.
Director
Henning Carlsen
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Sofie Gråbøl later became iconic as Sarah Lund in The Killing—this role shows her doom-laden stare was always lethal.
Hamsun's 1894 novel was considered unfilmable for a century; Carlsen finally cracked it by leaning into the colonial outsider angle and shooting the frame story in actual Thailand.
NO
