Year: 1998
Country:
Norway/Spain
Run Time:
95 minutes
Bent Hamer's premiere feature "Eggs" (20th CIFF, 1996) signaled the hatching of a singular screen talent, and we're pleased to announce that his sophomore effort confrims Hamer's rather . . . bent vision of human behavior. "You're in Spain now. Things take their time, right?" So a stranded Australian mariner tells newcomer Almar, a 20-year-old Norwegian sailor, as both idle in a sun-drenched Spanish port city in Galacia. Almar accidentally dropped his father's antique watch in the sea and now must miss his boat and pass the hours, day after day, as a strange pair of local tinkerers slowly repair the precious timepiece. In the meantime Almar befriends Windy, a rogue from Down Under, working on his bar tabs and various shadowy deals ever since his ship was impounded and his captain jailed. Windy introduces Almar to characters like Molina, the aged (but still breastfeeding) lighthouse-keeper, the intriguing delivery-girl Marta, and Gloria, a wealthy prostitute who can do tricks with a cigar nto even a US president could imagine. A total eclipse of the sun is approaching, and as minutes tick away for the watchless hero, more darkens than just the sky. Like David Lynch with a large does of ma?ana, Bent Hamer conducts you on a tragicomical tour of a community's twisted edges and strikes a haunting note of dislocation, longing, and absurdity. (In Spanish and Norwegian with English subtitles)
Screenplay
Bent Hamer
Director
Bent Hamer
Producer
Angelica Muete, Marianne Silot, Vibekz Windelev, Tom Pemlov, Finn Gjerdrum
Cinematography
Philip Ogaard
Editing
Skafti Gudmundsson
Principal Cast
Eric Magnusson, Nicholas Hope, Ingrid rubio, Francisco Rabal, Luis Cuenca, Jose Luis Fanoll.
Norwegian Film Institute
Dronningens Gate 16 Boks 482 Sentrum
N-0105 Oslo
NORWAY
tel: (47-22) 47 45 76/00
fax: (47-22) 47 45 97
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