In this darkly comic Norwegian fable, a man wakes up in a Kafka-esque world of sterile office buildings, ineffective alcohol and impeccably tasteful interior design.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2007
The Bothersome Man 2006
Den brysomme mannen
A man attempts suicide, but awakes to find himself in a Kafkaesque world of sterile office buildings and impeccably tasteful interior design. A bewildered Andreas (Trond Fausa Aurvåg) is whisked into a job in an accounting firm, where the work is undemanding and his colleagues are always cheerful. Easily making friends he soon finds himself moving into a designer apartment with a beautiful new girlfriend. So far so good, but the cracks in this new life soon begin to show. Food doesn’t taste right, alcohol won’t make you drunk, sex is passionless and mechanical, no-one is ever joyous nor is anyone ever sad, everything is just nice… too nice. Is this heaven? Hell? Or Scandinavia? With a witty script and a cool palette of taupe and azure, director Jens Lien deftly satirises the nightmarish niceness of Ikea-land.
“A darkly comic Norwegian fable… it’s the glossy dystopia of The Truman Show transported to the land of designer sofas, 30-hour weeks and sweet blonde girls called Ingeborg…” — Lee Marshall, Screen International