Home for Christmas (Hjem Til Jul)

• Director: Bent Hamer
• Writer: Bent Hamer
• Cast: Trond Fausa Aurvåg, Fridtjov Såheim, Nina Andresen-Borud, Reidar Sørensen, Ingunn Beate Øyen
• Theatrical Release Date:
• Criticwire: C+

Synopsis: Bent Hamer’s subjects have doggedly pursued solitude: from the lost traveler in "Water Easy Reach," to the ornery farmer in "Kitchen Stories," to the engineer in "O’Horten." No matter how hard they try, these characters wind up in relationships they neither anticipated nor wanted. His newest film, "Home for Christmas," takes a very different tack. Based on interconnected stories by Norwegian author Levi Henriksen, the film looks at those who are desperately trying to connect or reconnect with their families, friends, or anyone who will listen.

Following a prologue set in wartorn former Yugoslavia, the film follows several different Christmas celebrations in the small Norwegian town of Skogli. Paul is a 33-year-old laborer who marches into his doctor’s office demanding a prescription, then proceeds to lay bare all his woes. The doctor is beleaguered by his own marital and financial difficulties (he’s left his upset wife to work emergency calls on Christmas Eve). There’s also an elderly man preparing an esoteric ritual, a vagrant who runs into an old flame, a middle-aged couple in the throes of passion, a boy hopelessly in love with his Muslim neighbour and a young émigré couple whose car breaks down as the woman goes into labor.

These entanglements range from the serious to the absurd. Paul’s situation may not be as desperate as the stranded young couple’s, but his sense of loss is formidable and real. As the characters struggle to connect (often with the gentle, off-the-wall comedy that epitomizes Hamer’s work), the reality of our inescapable interconnectedness is revealed. Hamer presents us with portraits of needs and desires that are flush with detail, insight and hope. It’s a touching, beautiful and welcome addition to the ouevre of Norway’s best-known and most internationally celebrated filmmaker. [Synopsis courtesy of Steve Gravestock, Toronto International Film Festival]