Otherland (film)

Movie
German title	Other country
Original title	The brysomme mannen
Country of production	Norway
original language	Norwegian
Publishing year	2006
length	95 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16
Rod
Director	Jens Lien
script	By carpenter
production	Jørgen Storm Rosenberg
music	Go to Anvik
camera	John Christian Rosenlund
cut	Vidar Flataukan
occupation
	Trond Fausa Aurvåg : Andreas; Petronella Barker : Anne Britt; Per Schaaning : Hugo; Birgitte Larsen : Ingeborg; Johannes Joner : Håvard; Ellen Horn : Trulsen; Andersen T. Andersen : Harald; Sigve Bøe : little man; Hanne Lindbæk : Vigdis; Ivar Lykke : colleague;

Anderland (Original title: Den brysomme mannen , dt. The annoying man ) is a Norwegian film by the director Jens Lien , which was shown for the first time at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and was awarded the ACID Prize. In Germany, the film was released on October 4, 2007. The dystopian story is based on a radio play by Per Schreiner , who also wrote the script.

action

Forty-year-old Andreas finds himself with no memory in a bus that takes him to an unknown city. Without further explanation, he is shown his home and workplace with the statement that he will settle in quickly. The people of the city are cold and superficial, accidents or expressions of feeling are ignored, conversations are almost exclusively conducted about furnishings. There are no children, alcohol has no effect, and the food doesn't taste like anything. In the event of injury or death, men dressed in gray appear who quickly remove all traces.

Andreas tries to find a way out of the city, but the traces of the bus that regularly brings new residents simply stop after a short distance. He begins a relationship with the saleswoman Anne-Britt, who is so dispassionate that he soon starts cheating with a work colleague named Ingeborg. One evening he announced to Anne-Britt that he was leaving her and asked Ingeborg if they wanted to move in together. She explains that she also has sex with three other men she finds just as nice as him. But she would still move in with him because she would then have a bathtub.

Convinced that he cannot find any real love in this city, Andreas throws himself in front of a subway and is run over several times. However, he survived almost unharmed and is escorted home by the gray men. One day he meets Hugo, who has found a crack in the cellar wall from which beautiful music can be heard. Andreas starts first alone, then with Hugo's help to dig a hole in the wall, and after a short time you can smell cake and hear children playing. Before he can flee to the parallel world, however, he is arrested by the gray men and driven out of town by bus. Shortly afterwards he finds himself in a barren ice desert and the bus drives away.

Reviews

The German-language reviews have turned out differently:

Inge Kutter von der Zeit describes Anderland as an “ oppressively current dystopia ” that “ only exaggerates reality by nuances ”. Lien creates " a constant tension that pulls you through the entire film and in the end releases you into an icy uncertainty about Andreas' fate ".

Der Spiegel calls the film a “ subtle grotesque ”. Since the “ rule of callousness ”, contrary to other gloomy visions of the future, offers little surface to attack, “ the fight against it also seems rather powerless ”.

Jörg Peter Löblein from the Berliner Morgenpost criticized the film clearly: “ Instead of spelling out the premises of its anti-utopia consistently, it only operates on that immature, pubescent Weltschmerz level on which residents of real illusory worlds have always been able to easily agree. "