Hamsun

Hamsun (1996)

They were worshipped as national saints. Hated as traitors. Their marriage spanned from the worst kind of betrayal to the greatest love...

Knut Hamsun is Norway's most famous and admired author. Ever since he was young he has hated the English for the starvation they caused Norway during WWI. When the Germans occupy Norway 9 April 1940 he welcomes them and the protection they can give from Great Britain. He supports the national socialist ideals, but opposes the way these ideals are turned into action - that Norwegians are jailed and executed. His wife Marie travels in Germany during the war as a sign of support from Knut and herself.

Date of release
1996-04-19
TMDB
6.8 / 10 (28)
Runtime
2h 39m
Genres
Drama
Director
Jan Troell

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

Hamsun is a 1996 internationally co-produced drama film directed by Jan Troell and written by Per Olov Enquist, about the later life of the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun, who, together with his wife Marie Hamsun, went from being a national hero to a traitor after supporting Nazi Germany during their occupation of Norway during World War II.

Production

The plans for the film have a history from 1979, when Thorkild Hansen, the author of the book Processen mod Hamsun contacted Troell since he wanted him to direct a Norwegian television series based on the book. Max von Sydow was meant to do the part as Hamsun already then, but NRK dropped out on the project in the belief that it would be too controversial.

Fourteen years later, in 1993, von Sydow brought the project back to life when he got the Danish production company Nordisk Film interested in adapting the book, this time with Per Olov Enquist, who had written Troell's previous film Il Capitano, providing the screenplay.

The shooting took place during the spring and the summer of 1995, with a budget of around 40 million SEK. The most expensive scene filmed, in which Marie Hamsun witnesses the attack and the sinking of the German cruiser Blücher in the Oslofjord at the Battle of Drøbak Sound on 9 April 1940, was cut from the finished product.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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