The Wave

Roar Uthaug’s disaster film stages the collapse of the Åkerneset crevice in Møre og Romsdal and draws on the rockslide tsunami that destroyed the village of Tafjord in 1934, killing 40 people. Once the alarm sounds, Geiranger has 10 minutes. The cast performed their own stunts, which the director called utterly nerve-racking. Kristoffer Joner trained with free-diving instructors for the flooded hotel section until he could hold his breath for 3 minutes. The British classification board describes both the wave and what follows at length: people chased down long corridors by a wall of water, then bodies in ruined buildings and cars, and a bus of dead passengers still strapped into their seats, one a young child. Norway entered it in the foreign language category at the 88th Academy Awards; it did not make the shortlist. At the 2016 Amanda Awards it won best Norwegian theatrical film, best visual effects and best sound design, and lost in director, cinematography and music. The 2015 Kanon Awards gave it four prizes: lead actor, producer, editing and production design. A sequel, Skjelvet, followed in 2018. A good fit if you want the 10 minutes granted to one town rather than the scale of the catastrophe. Not for viewers avoiding scenes of people trapped underwater and images of a dead child.