Jonas (Stellan Skarsgård) is a Swedish cop who moves to Oslo after a scandal. Together with partner Erik (Sverre Anker Ousdal) he is sent to investigate the murder of a young girl in a remote town. On arrival they realise the Midsummer climate has cursed the town with unceasing daylight, making Jonas' sleepless nights worse.

Fresh evidence helps nominate a suspect, and a trap is set. It goes wrong and in the subsequent panic, Jonas shoots Erik dead and tampers with the crime scene to blame the fugitive. His nightmare has only just begun…

If Breaking the Waves brought Skarsgård international renown, it was this, his next project, which indicated it was no fluke. As Jonas he carries the narrative, and claims to have taken the role for its ‘pressure cooker’ angle in which the flawed cop lets out little emotion (in tune with his own similarly muted acting style). 

It's no picture postcard: any romantic notions of sun and snow are toppled by a bleak industrial wasteland making Fargo look like Las Vegas. Director Erik Skjoldbjærg called it 'a reverse Film Noir' which relies on light, not dark, for dramatic impetus.

Christopher Nolan remade it as a starrier, Alaska-set thriller in 2002 - a version which has, unfairly, eclipsed the original.

'Skjoldbjærg’s daring debut film remains his most celebrated…with an ambient soundtrack by Biosphere and a stunning performance by Stellan Skarsgård.'

Revenge, money, power and love – the passions that push moral and immoral alike into a shady underworld.

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A tragedy shatters the idyllic world of a family living off-grid in the Norwegian wilderness.

A timid Long Island skater-girl befriends a New York City-based skateboarding crew in Crystal Moselle's Sundance-nominated coming-of-age tale.

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Neo-noir in which a young actor begins an affair with a closeted Brazilian politician - only to discover a shared fetish for exhibitionism.

Following some unexpected revelations, a celebration quickly takes a turn for the worse in Sally Potter's razor-sharp comedy.

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Richard Linklater recreates the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s seminal feature debut, Breathless.

Udo Kier enchants as the flamboyant hairdresser pulled out of retirement for one last bob in a hugely enjoyable comedy featuring Jennifer Coolidge.

Three young men band together to escape volatile families in their Rust Belt hometown in Bing Liu's Academy Award-nominated documentary.

Sexual obsessions spiral dangerously out of control in this altogether different coming-of-age tale.

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A woman battles addiction and abuse in Kristen Stewart’s uncompromising depiction of love, trauma and artistic self-expression.

A group of young men test each other’s boundaries in this provocative chamber piece from acclaimed queer filmmaker Marco Berger.

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