Insomnia (1997 film)
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- This article is about the Norwegian film. For the U.S. remake, see Insomnia (2002 film).
| Insomnia | |
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| Directed by | Erik Skjoldbjærg |
| Produced by | Tomas Backstrom Petter Borgli Tom Remlov |
| Written by | Erik Skjoldbjærg Nikolaj Frobenius |
| Starring | Stellan Skarsgård Gisken Armand Maria Bonnevie Bjørn Floberg Sverre Anker Ousdal |
| Music by | Geir Jenssen |
| Cinematography | Erling Thurmann-Andersen |
| Editing by | Hakon Overas |
| Distributed by | First Run Features (US, 1998) The Criterion Collection (Region 1 DVD) |
| Release date(s) |  14 March 1997 29 March 1998 13 November 1998 |
| Running time | 95 min. |
| Country | Norway |
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| IMDb profile | |
Insomnia is a 1997 Norwegian film about a police detective investigating a murder in a town located above the Arctic Circle. The detective arrives in the summer, during the midnight sun, and suffers insomnia. It was the film debut of director Erik Skjoldbjærg. The screenplay is by Nikolaj Frobenius, and the soundtrack by Geir Jenssen (alias Biosphere).
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[edit] Synopsis
Insomnia tells the story of a cross-border collaboration between Swedish and Norwegian police to hunt down the killer of a fifteen-year-old girl in the Norwegian Arctic. The investigation goes horribly wrong when police officer Jonas Engström (Stellan Skarsgård) mistakenly shoots his partner (Sverre Anker Ousdal) and subsequently attempts to cover up his bungle. The title of the film refers to Engström's inability to sleep, the result of both his guilt and the relentless glare of the midnight sun.
[edit] Themes
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In the film, Engström is unable to sleep, partly due to relentless guilt over recent and ongoing misdeeds, and partly due to the never-ending sunlight, which serves as an outward representation of that guilt. The film has been described as turning film noir conventions on their heads by using, in place of shadows and darkness, relentless sunshine and ubiquitous bright white fog to convey guilt and disorientation. The film noir theme is emphasized, as the film follows many of the other conventions from this genre. For instance the lone detective that doesn't follow rules, but develops a personal interest in the case and establishes connections with the villain. At the end of the film the protagonist has developed from his Jungian encounter with the antagonist, as a result the protagonist eyes glow effectively demonstrating that a union or syzygy had occurred leaving the protagonist changed forever. The U.S. counterpart film shows the main character dying, indicating that "crime doesn't pay." This clearly shows differences in value systems between the illuminated and the dead.
[edit] Remake
In 2002, a U.S. remake was released, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams.
