In Order of Disappearance (Kraftidioten)

Director:	Hans Petter Moland
Country:	Norway
Year:	2014
Running Time:	116mins
Principle Cast:	Stellan Skarsgard	Nils
	Bruno Ganz	Papa
	Pal Sveere Hagan	Greven
	Birgitte Hjort Serensen	Marit
	Jakob Oftebro	Aron Horowitz

Described as ‘hugely enjoyable, gruesome, ingenious, brilliantly-cast pitch black comedy set against the hugely cinematic snow covered landscape of a rural winter’[4] If you found the Jo Nesbo scripted Jackpot (2011) funny, your going to just love the extremely blacker than black humour of another Norwegian export The Order of Disappearance (2014). Certainly a revenge drama that unlike the subtle direction and handling of Alejandro Fernandez Almendras’s Chilean thriller To Kill a Man (2014) is nearer to the Death Wish (1974) and Fargo (1996) format of blood and gore.

Citizen of the year Nils Dickman drives the snowplough to keep the local roads clear. When the police inform Nils that his only son has died from a drug overdose he does not believe it and suspects that he has been murdered. He sets out to find the culprits, starting at the bottom rung of the drug cartel gradually getting to the truth but not before the body count increases. The local gang boss and health food fanatic Greven thinks that the Serbian gang, who share the local territory, are behind the sudden disappearance of his henchmen. This in turn starts a turf war that only Nils can bring to a successful but bloody conclusion.  

As well as the beautifully photographed snow covered scenery it’s the politically incorrect laugh out loud humour that carries the film. It was a good job we had undertitles because the laughter drowned out the dialog at times especially when every time someone was killed the screen went black and the victims name appeared along with his gang name and a cross denoting what religion the person was i.e. a Christian or Serbian Orthodox or Jewish - Star of David! Like most Nordic films the acting was superb with both Stellen Skarsgard and Bruno Ganz underplaying their roles to great affect. A cracking watch in which the two-hour’s just melted away.

Beowulf and Grendel

Beowulf and Grendel get to know each other better!.

I must admit to a lack of familiarity with Anglo-Saxon literature, so when I get a chance to see a movie loosely based on an epic poem called Beowulf by an anonymous author I’m intrigued! Apparently according to the poem this Beowulf is the hero of the Geats who were a North Germanic tribe inhabiting what is now Gotaland in Sweden. The king of the Danes, a chap called Hrothgar, summons our Scandinavian warrior to help him out with a wee problem he was having with a nasty piece of work called Grendel, seemingly a monstrous character who attacks and kills people with his bare hands. According to the poem Beowulf slays Grendel and then proceeds to slay his mother after which he returns home and becomes King of the Geats. After ruling the Geats for fifty years up pops a dragon, which he manages to slay but he is fatally wounded and dies from his injuries. You would think that at his age he would have left it to a much younger man?

Gerard Butler as Beowulf.

Right, after this wee history lesson I’d best get back to the film, as I said Beowulf and Grendel (2005) is loosely based on this ancient poem. Filmed in Iceland and directed by the Canadian film director Sturla Gunnarsson the films narrative does indeed deviate from the poem, the monster is now depicted as a Troll, played by the Icelandic actor Ingvar Eggert Sigurosson you may have seen in Jar City (2006) and there are some additional characters including a rather attractive witch called Selma portrayed by Sarah Polley (Splice 2009) and by the way your be pleased to know I have not given away the ending because it’s different from the one I described. Also included on the cast list are Gerard Butler, who seems to appear all over the place at the moment, as Beowulf and Stellan Skarsgasrd as the Danish king Hrothgar.

This historical curiosity has some well-staged action sequences, but it’s bleak and cold looking mainly due to the inhospitable landscape and Iceland’s unrelenting weather. The main problem is the dialog, which is very difficult to understand at times. There’s a certain amount of madness about the whole thing, so much so you could imagine Werner Hertzog directing it!