Reprise

The first feature by Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt, and the start of what became known as the Oslo trilogy, followed by Oslo, August 31st and The Worst Person in the World. Vogt built and wrote all three scripts with Trier, and Anders Danielsen Lie appears in each. Two childhood friends, Erik and Philip, post their first novels on the same day. One is published, the other rejected, and from that moment the two lives diverge. But the film does not treat success as a prize: the published one collapses, the rejected one keeps writing. The form carries the same idea. The narration repeatedly stops to describe a future that never happens, then returns. Some of what you watch did not occur; it was merely possible. The film won the Discovery Prize at Toronto. Who it is for: viewers drawn to films about writing, envy and the fragility of young male friendship. Who it is not for: anyone wanting straight chronology. The narrative is deliberately scattered, and the characters' self-regard becomes hard to sit with at times.