Riders of Justice will open Oslo Pix
Get ready for a new film festival, May 31–June 6! This year's opening film is the Danish action comedy Riders of Justice, starring Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas.
The cinemas of Oslo have been closed since November, and we are hoping that Oslo Pix will be a part of reopening the city with cinema screenings of some of the most exciting films from the contemporary world of cinema. With the fourth edition of Oslo Pix we offer the best of Norwegian and Nordic film, as well as highlights from Europe and North America. As usual, we promise you pre-premieres, critically acclaimed festival favourites and fierce documentaries when the festival kicks off.
This year, Oslo Pix will also for the first time put together a digital festival programme, and a number of our events will be digital. This means that you can experience outstanding films, interesting debates and meetings with exciting Norwegian and international filmmakers from your own living room!
Whether Oslo Pix 2021 will be held as an all-digital festival or a hybrid variant with both online and cinema screenings remains to be seen, but we are crossing our fingers and hoping we can meet again in the darkness of the cinema to enjoy collective film experiences at Saga, Klingenberg and Vika Cinema and Vega Scene. This year, we have also planned screenings of a few selected film classics at SALT, where you can enjoy film, food and hopefully a drink in the sunset.
The full festival program will be released on Wednesday, May 12, but we will publish several highlights from the program in the following weeks, so stay tuned and check in on our website and on facebook, or sign up for the newsletter!
Danish star team opens the festival
The Danish action comedy Riders of Justice has the honor of opening the fourth edition of Oslo Pix. The film has enjoyed great success in its home country, where it was the second-most-visited film last year.
The stationed soldier Markus (played by Mads Mikkelsen) must return home to his teenage daughter Mathilde after a tragic train accident. The accident, which at first seems like a coincidence, quickly becomes more intricate – at least according to the mathematician Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) and his two eccentric colleagues Lennart and Emmenthaler. Otto, also a passenger on the train, is convinced that the accident is a carefully planned attack executed by one of Denmark’s most dangerous gangs
Riders of Justice poses big questions about predictability, probability, and coincidences. Director Anders Thomas Jensen's wonderful black comedies have delighted audiences also in Norway for years, and we are very proud to open the festival with his latest film. During the festival, you will also have the opportunity to watch two of Jensen's previous films, Flickering Lights (2000) and The Green Butchers (2003), which are screened on our digital platform.
Riders of Justice (dir: Anders Thomas Jensen)
Den utstasjonerte soldaten Markus (spilt av Mads Mikkelsen) må reise hjem til tenåringsdatteren Mathilde etter at en tragisk togulykke rammer familien. Togulykken som ved første øyekast virker helt tilfeldig, er kanskje mer komplisert – i hvert fall ifølge matematikeren Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) og hans to eksentriske kolleger Lennart og Emmenthaler. Otto, som selv var passasjer på toget, er nemlig overbevist om at ulykken er et nøye planlagt attentat utført av en av Danmarks farligste bander.
Rettferdighetens Ryttere stiller store spørsmål om forutsigbarhet, sannsynlighet og tilfeldigheter. Regissør Anders Thomas Jensens herlige svarte komedier har gledet publikum også her til lands i en årrekke, og vi er svært stolte over å kunne åpne festivalen med hans nyeste film. I tillegg har du under festivalen mulighet til å se to av Jensens tidligere filmer, Blinkende lykter (2000) og De grønne slakterne (2003), som vises på vår digitale plattform.
Swedish audience favourite is this year's closing film
Run Uje Run is an autobiographical tale written by Uje Brandelius, frontman of the left-wing pop band Doktor Kosmos. Brandelius and his family play themselves, in a very recognizable depiction of everyday life in the Swedish suburb.
The film captured Swedish hearts last year, when it won the audience award at the Gothenburg International Film Festival, as well as three “Swedish Oscars”, Guldbagge Awards, for best film, best screenplay and best actor. It is directed by Henrik Schyffert from the comedy group Killinggänget, which is probably best known in Norway for the critically acclaimed, absurd comedy Four Shades of Brown (2004).
Run Uje Run (dir: Henrik Schyffert)
Norwegian pre-premiere
As an added treat, we are proud to present the Norwegian feature film HIM, written and directed by Guro Bruusgaard, at this year's festival. The film competes for an award for best film in the Grand Pix Nordic Fiction competition, together with Riders of Justice and Run Uje Run.
HIM follows three men at different life stages, through 24 hours of social and emotional downfalls at various locations in Oslo: the eleven-year-old divorce child Harald (Frank Werner Laug), the unemployed thirty-something Eirik (Emil Johnsen) and the 60-year-old, renowned – but suddenly rejected – screenwriter Petter (Johannes Joner).
Director Guro Bruusgaard has proclaimed that the idea for her feature film debut originated from reading that when women are asked what they feared the most from the opposite sex, the most common answer is being murdered. When men are asked the same question, that answer is being made into laughter. It is beyond doubt that Bruusgaard, with her direct and highly contemporary look at outsiderness, resentment and manhood has made one of this year’s most essential Norwegian films – carried forward by impressive performances by the three leading actors.
HIM (dir: Guro Brusgaard)
HAN følger tre menn i ulike stadier av livet, som i løpet av et døgn opplever sosiale og emosjonelle fall på hver sin kant av Oslo: Skilsmissebarnet Harald (Frank Werner Laug), den arbeidsledige Eirik (Emil Johnsen) og den anerkjente – men plutselig utkvoterte – manusforfatteren Petter (Johannes Joner).
Spillefilmdebutant Guro Bruusgaard har selv uttalt at hun fikk ideen til filmen etter å ha lest at når kvinner ble spurt om hva de fryktet mest hos det motsatte kjønn, var svaret å bli drept eller voldtatt. Når menn fikk det samme spørsmålet, var svaret å bli ledd av. Det er ingen tvil om at Bruusgaard med sitt direkte og høyst aktuelle blikk på utenforskap, krenkelser og mannsrollen har laget en av årets viktigste norske filmer – båret frem av imponerende skuespillerprestasjoner fra de tre hovedrolleinnehaverne.