Genre: Comedy, Drama
Actor: Brady Corbet, Clara Wettergren, Fanni Metelius, Johannes Kuhnke, Karin Myrenberg, Kristofer Hivju, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Vincent Wettergren
Director: Ruben Östlund
If you want to brush up on your Norwegian or just explore new genres beyond Scandinavian noir, we’ve got you covered. Here are the best movies and shows to stream right now featuring the Norwegian language.
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Actor: Brady Corbet, Clara Wettergren, Fanni Metelius, Johannes Kuhnke, Karin Myrenberg, Kristofer Hivju, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Vincent Wettergren
Director: Ruben Östlund
1899 is for viewers who love twisty big-budgeted shows in the vein of HBO's Westworld and Amazon Prime's Peripheral. It’s set in the titled year and follows migrants from all walks of life as they set sail for New York, the land of opportunity. There’s a priest from Spain, a couple from France, and a performer from China, all aboard a ship run by Danish sailors and a German captain. It’s a multilingual feat, but the twisty part arrives when they stop to help a steamship that’s been stranded for months. One horrific, mind-bending event follows another as they race to solve the mystery within the ship.
1899 comes from the creators of Dark, the German sci-fi hit that won critical acclaim for its originality and craftsmanship.
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Actor: Alexandre Willaume, Andreas Pietschmann, Aneurin Barnard, Anton Lesser, Clara Rosager, Emily Beecham, Gabby Wong, Isaak Dentler, Isabella Wei, Jonas Bloquet, José Pimentão, Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen, Maciej Musiał, Maria Erwolter, Mathilde Ollivier, Miguel Bernardeau, Rosalie Craig, Tino Mewes, Yann Gael
Much like the 1976 horror classic Carrie, Thelma centers on a young telekinetic woman whose religious upbringing and sexual repression give way to unpredictable moments of fury and rage. When she meets the cool, charismatic Anja, she falls in love immediately, but the wave of emotions that overwhelm her threaten to destabilize not just their budding romance, but other relationships and lives as well.
Thelma recalls Carrie in other ways too, most notably in the way it uses supernatural elements to allude to female fury and lust, but it also stands on its own as a singular piece of work; the mesmerizing transitions, the slow-burn pace, and the undercurrent of melancholia are all known trademarks of director Joachim Trier. This layering of old and new makes Thelma an intriguing watch, at once recognizable and wholly original.
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Actor: Anders Mossling, Camilla Belsvik, Eili Harboe, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Grethe Eltervag, Henrik Rafaelsen, Ingrid Jørgensen Dragland, Ingrid Unnur Giæver, Irina Eidsvold Tøien, Isabel Christine Andreasen, Kaya Wilkins, Lars Berge, Marte Magnusdotter Solem, Sigve Bøe, Steinar Klouman Hallert, Tom Louis Lindstrøm, Vanessa Borgli
Director: Joachim Trier
Being a Viking is “the easiest job in the world” a villager tells the town’s most feared fighter: “sit on a boat, stab people with swords — it’s as basic as it can possibly get”. In Norsemen, a variety of characters try to fight this basicness. They take fashion risks like putting horns on a helmet for the first time, try to be more culturally diverse by interacting with a Roman slave, fall in love and raid tribes (often at the same time), and so on - you know, every day Viking stuff. Norsemen’s first season was viewed by more than a million people in Norway, a country of five million.
Genre: Comedy
Originally released as a film, War Sailor tells the oft-forgotten tale of the Norwegian merchant sailors who were required by law to take part in the battle against Axis forces. Reluctantly but bravely, they rose to the challenge and became part of a valiant effort that unfortunately went under the radar because of their civilian status.
The extended three-part series on Netflix gives these war sailors their due by telling their story in rich detail and epic proportions. It goes even deeper to explore the aftermath of war and its harrowing toll on survivors. The storytelling is grand, but it's important to note that War Sailor is less interested in heroics than it is in humanity—it has the characters questioning the purpose of fighting a war they know little about and dives deep into their lives post-war, where even then peace still seems elusive.
It’s a sprawling story so the pacing can get sluggish, but if you don't mind the occasional overlong take, then War Sailor pays off immensely.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Ine Marie Wilmann, Kristoffer Joner, Pål Sverre Hagen
This movie is different from a Netflix release about the same events. Actually, it's different from any movie you've probably seen before. Depicting the terrorist attack that took 77 lives in 2011 in an island near Oslo, Norway, it's made to make you feel as if you were part of the attack. It's shot to resemble one take, and the time of the movie is the time it took the attack to unfold (so you're witnessing it in real-time). While closely based on the accounts of two survivors, it follows a fictional character called Kaja who looks for her sister during the attacks. Utøya: July 22 pushes the limits of what you can watch in a movie but serves as a terrifying testament to the atrocity of a terrorist attack of such nature.
Genre: Drama, History
Actor: Ada Eide, Aleksander Holmen, Andrea Berntzen, Brede Fristad, Daniel Sang Tran, Elli Rhiannon Müller Osborne, Elli Rhiannon Müller Osbourne, Ingeborg Enes, Jenny Svennevig, Karoline Petronella Ulfsdatter Schau, Mariann Gjerdsbakk, Solveig Koløen Birkeland, Torkel D. Soldal
Director: Erik Poppe
Genre: Drama, History, Romance
Actor: Adriana Asti, Alberto Pozzo, Alessio Boni, Andrea Tidona, Angelo Costabile, Antonello Puglisi, Camilla Filippi, Claudia Fiorentini, Claudio Gioè, Danilo Maria Valli, Dario Veca, Domenico Centamore, Enzo Marcelli, Fabio Camilli, Fabrizio Gifuni, Fausto Maria Sciarappa, Giorgio Crisafi, Giovanni Martorana, Giovanni Scifoni, Giuseppe Gandini, Jasmine Trinca, Juana Jimenez, Kristine M. Opheim, Krum De Nicola, Lidia Vitale, Luigi Lo Cascio, Marcello Prayer, Maria Grazia Bon, Massimiliano Petrucci, Maurizio Di Carmine, Maya Sansa, Michele Melega, Mimmo Mignemi, Nanni Tormen, Paolo Bonanni, Paolo De Vita, Patrizia Punzo, Riccardo Scamarcio, Roberto Accornero, Sonia Bergamasco, Stefano Abbati, Valentina Carnelutti
Director: Marco Tullio Giordana
This Homeland-style mini-series is about a Norwegian soldier who returns home from Afghanistan and finds himself tangled in a web of questionable global politics.
Like most Norwegian series on the topic, and there have been quite a few lately, the production value struggles to match Hollywood shows. But paying that small price will get you an abundance of sharp dialogue and a nuanced thriller.
Genre: Thriller
Actor: Aksel Hennie, Anders Danielsen Lie, Atheer Adel, Ayesha Wolasmal, Christian Rubeck, Danica Curcic, Dennis Storhøi, Dennis Storhoi, Eirik Evjen, Hallvard Holmen, Kyrre Hellum, Mads Sjøgård Pettersen, Mads Sjogard Pettersen, Mattis Herman Nyquist, Mohammad-Ali Behboudi, Odd Magnus Williamson, Ramin Yazdani, Rolf Kristian Larsen, Runar Holmstroem, Samuel Froler, Tuva Novotny
Genre: Documentary
Actor: Garry Kasparov, Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand
Director: Benjamin Ree
Christmas is a common setting for romance stories, because it’s obviously the best time to warm up… if you know what we mean. (Warm drinks, sweet treats, and snuggling with loved ones, of course.) Christmas as Usual seems to go along that vein, as Thea brings home her fiancé Jashan to meet the parents, and he tries to impress her family, as these family Christmas romances tend to go. This obviously brings about the relatable romantic troubles that anyone can empathize with, so it’s a bit of a shock when Thea’s Norwegian family treats Jashan so badly that it seems more insidious than good ol’ concern over their daughter. Had the story been approached with more sensitivity, Christmas as Usual would have been outstanding, but its current version never really questions the racism of the Norwegian family, or the passive way Thea just lets it all happen.
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Actor: Ida Ursin-Holm, Jonas Strand Gravli, Kanan Gill, Mads Sjogard Pettersen, Marit Andreassen, Veslemøy Mørkrid
Director: Petter Holmsen