Oslo, August 31st

Oslo, August 31st (2011)

Directed by: Joachim Trier
Written by: Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier
Premiered at Cannes Film Festival 2011.

The film is about a suicidal drug addict, who gets a day of leave from the rehab center to apply for a job. The film is about the events that happen in this one day. He goes to meet his old friend who is married with a kid. The friend encourages him to do something with his life, and he goes to a job interview where he walks out of the room. He quits after the slightest of inconvenience. This is where I thought that he is in a state which is too far from the place he needs to be at. The film then lives up to this scene, he later gets drunk, buys drugs and shoots up in the ending. It's a tragedy. The film has a bleak worldview, which says that the world has nothing much to offer which would make an addict stay off drugs for a while.

The protagonist is in a very low state in the entire film, we realize that as he meets people. His sister doesn't show up to meet him, we realize that he treated his ex-girlfriend badly. The film never attempts to even give him a redemption, the direction that the film goes in, character feels beyond redemption. But I personally don't think anyone is beyond redemption. I would've preferred a bittersweet ending over such a bleak ending, but I think since it's talking about a drug addict, the numbers probably speak and probably that's where the bleakness comes from. I like how the film was shot, handheld, non-continuity editing, especially the opening sequences - it's almost like an intimate documentary. Anders was beautiful in the part, he brings out a sense of pain through even his blank face.