Oslo

A Norwegian couple carry an idea. Terje Rød-Larsen is a social scientist and his wife Mona Juul works at the foreign ministry. The official talks are not working; everyone at the table speaks for the cameras and nobody can give ground. Their proposal is different: a small group, a secret place and no witnesses. Two representatives come from the Palestinian side. From the Israeli side, two academics at first. They meet at a manor house in Norway. The first days are shouting. Then they eat at the same table. It takes months and the two sides begin to know each other. Bartlett Sher directs. Ruth Wilson plays Mona and Andrew Scott plays Terje; Salim Daw and Waleed Zuaiter are in the cast. It is an American production, made for television. The source is J.T. Rogers's stage play; Sher had directed the same play on Broadway. Its ground is real; the 1993 Oslo talks were conducted in secret and an agreement was signed at the end. The narrative is about the process rather than the political result; the real question is whether the two sides can stay in the same room. The film does not hide its stage origin; the narrative is largely confined and proceeds through talk. It puts the Norwegian couple at the centre, a choice that was criticised; the process is given through the eyes of two people outside it. A short note at the end says what came after the agreement and the optimism breaks. Its limit is form; the narrative is like theatre, the pace low, and the characters thin. Who it is for: viewers who like political drama and adaptations of plays. Who it is not for: it is confined, weighted to talk, and the ending bitter.