The Other Side of Sunday

The film is a criticism of a small and tightly bound church community. We follow Maria, the preacher’s daughter, on her journey to free herself both from that rigid community and from her father. The ordinary wants of adolescence collide daily with the rules of the house, and Maria learns to hide what she thinks. The account does not reject faith outright; it shows that the trouble lies not in belief but in its turning into an instrument of control. It does not draw the father in a single dimension either, giving him as a man carrying his own fear. It takes place in rural Norway and the seasons set its rhythm. Marie Theisen plays the lead in Berit Nesheim’s hundred and three minute Norwegian film, completed in 1996.