War Sailor

In 1939 in Bergen, a labourer with three children signs on to a merchant ship with his friend to earn money. War breaks out and the Norwegian merchant fleet is put at the service of the Allies. The men cannot come home for years; ships are sunk, death at sea becomes ordinary. The family left in Bergen lives through its own war. Coming back turns out to be no easier than leaving. Gunnar Vikene's film is based on real events and reaches from 1939 into the 1970s. It became the most expensive Norwegian production made to that point, opened at number one at the box office at home, and was chosen as Norway's submission for the 2023 Oscars. Kristoffer Joner takes the lead. What the film is really about is not the war but what happened afterwards to thirty thousand sailors nobody named.