The Scandinavian Resistance

Related Content

• The Internet Kills Babies
  April 24, 2012
• Q&A: Waters on Alaskan Fishing Boats, Norwegian Inspiration, and Why San Francisco Is the Best
  March 8, 2012
• Sentimental Journey: Traveling in 1957's S.F. Bay Area
  December 28, 2011
• Arthouse Movie Listings for April 13-19, 2011
  April 13, 2011
• Corinne: Show Preview
  February 9, 2011

More About

• Max Manus
• Askel Hennie
• Espen Sandberg
• Joachim Roenning
• Oslo

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg give the lying-in-state biopic salute in Max Manus to an adventurer by the same name who was one of the most intrepid and celebrated figures in the Norwegian resistance. Manus, played by a cagey, compact Askel Hennie, is seen through the grinder of the occupation years. Introduced under fire in the Finnish Winter War of 1940, he's rarely long out of the fray, lunging through windows, collecting bullet holes, and sabotaging ships in Nazified Oslo (rousing stuff, all). "My country was stolen from me" is Manus' curt explanation for why he fights, though he and right-hand man Gregers (Nicolai Cleve Broch) can't tell Norwegian trees from Swedish ones during one of their frequent border jumps. The resistance fighters are deposed God, King, and country to one another, finally. Such bonds of brotherhood are only perfunctorily established, but Hennie's isolation as he finds himself the last man standing in the victory parades is affecting. An epic by Scandinavian standards, Manus' period re-creation is lavish.
April 8-14, 2011