Five Norwegian films made the cut for this year’s London Film Festival, including the opening-night gala film The Imitation Game.

 

The engrossing historical drama, directed by Morten Tyldum and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, presents the vision, determination and ultimate persecution of computing pioneer Alan Turing, inventor of the machine that cracked the Nazis’ Enigma code and helped win the Second World War.

Three Norwegian films are presented in the ‘Laugh’ category. Norway’s Oscar candidate for Best Foreign Language Film, 1001 Grams by Bent Hamer, tells the story of Marie, a woman obsessed with the concept of the true weight of the kilogram, but who ultimately discovers that her own disappointment, sorrow and love are what is measured on the scale.

Ole Endresen’s Chasing Berlusconi is a horseracing comedy centring on Bjarte Lem, a champion racer whose glory days have passed and who finds himself bending the law to keep his creditors at bay. Following a doping attempt gone wrong and a subsequent horse-napping, Bjarte finds himself embroiled in an increasingly uproarious farce, featuring the cream of the Norwegian comedy scene.

Oscar-nominee Hallvar Witzø directs Yes We Love, which – in just 14 minutes –chronicles the individual plights of four generations, set in four different parts of Norway on the country’s national day.

Finally, Eskil Vogt’s debut as full-length director, Blind, appears in this year’s ‘Dare’ category, which is dedicated to films that take viewers out of their comfort zone and confront them with something new. In this inventive and challenging film, Vogt presents his audience with Ingrid, a woman who responds to losing her sight by retreating to the easily controllable environment of her apartment, where her hidden anxieties and repressed fantasies soon take over.