TIFF 2010: Bent Hamer’s Home for Christmas

It feels slightly odd to celebrate the Yuletide spirit in mid September, but Christmas Eve in Home for Christmas serves only as a calendar marker for a smidgen more of humanity and compassion between strangers, and the estranged. Logically lighter than most films bathing in traditional Scandi noir humor, the small miracle friendly film composed of intertwined vignettes (based on a short story collection from Levi Henriksen translated as Only Soft Presents Under The Tree) sees TIFF regular Bent Hamer (95’s Eggs and 2003’s Kitchen Stories) string together a tragi-film where despair doesn’t completely drown out good intentions. Actress Nina Andresen-Borud (who plays the mistress being promised to become number one) stayed after the screening to discuss the origins of the story and Hamer’s work with actors, as Hamer himself was en route to another heavyweight fall film fest in San Sebastien. Here’s footage from the film’s presentation and Q&A.