Bent Hamer Gets Festive for ‘Home for Christmas’

I first discovered Bent Hamer not with his Director’s Fortnight 1995 film Eggs, but with a smallish offering called Kitchen Stories (03). I thought the tale about Norwegians studying the domestic habits of Swedes was the best thing since sliced bread.

For his next project he’ll be taking on the holidays, normally I have an immense dislike for Xmas branded movies, but we can confidently say that this cup of eggnog will have a strong “Scandi” humor flavor. Those who’ve seen Factotum or O’Horten, know that Hamer has a distinct tone not unlike Sweden’s Roy Andersson and Finland’s Aki Kaurismäki.

Home for Christmas is based on a series of short stories by Norwegian writer Levi Henriksen, this weaves together the lives of people struggling to find their way home on a Christmas Eve. So far this sounds lame, but once again I’d point to the Scandi-humor. Cineuropa reports that the production (co-produced by BulBul Films and Germany’s Pandora Film) will take place in Norway and Germany and we should expect a release in autumn of next year. If I had to make some early predictions, I’d say that this might be found at TIFF next year.