A mid-life crisis prompts a Norwegian father of two to head out into the wilderness to reclaim a life that, generations earlier, might have been his.
Although Martin’s (Rasmus Bjerg) name lacks the oomph of the Viking legends he so admires, his aspiration to be a Norseman is palpable. Which is a problem, as Martin is a family man living in suburbia. But life has become too much for him and so he takes off, into the wilds, to roam as he believes his ancestors may once have done. He encounters an injured criminal (Zaki Youssef), who is on the run from both the police and former colleagues. And he isn’t above brushing up against the law himself, albeit of the pettiest kind.
Thomas Daneskov’s deadpan comedy succeeds because it invests itself in Martin’s plight, while also offering space and empathy to his wife Anne (an excellent Sofie Gråbøl). Bjerg captures the confusion of a man adrift in the world, whose compass – literal and metaphorical – find him utterly lost and whose sole desire is to seek solace and refuge in nature.
