Zero Kelvin

Masses of ice traverse the screen when the camera pans across a landscape which will become the setting of the plot. We move from the ice across the sea to Norway in the mid-twenties. The young couple, Henrik and Gertrude, are getting ready to say goodbye. Out of sheer desperation Henrik has asked his girlfriend to become his fiancée, but she declines on the ground that their love needs no such guarantee. The trip, which will take him far away from his loved one, is to be turned into a book about the life of man in the wilderness.He arrives at an outpost in Greenland which is inhabited by two trappers, Holm and Randbek. An agitated conversation make us understand that the buyer ofthe furs is dissatisfied with the catch and Randbek, the supervisor, is told to double the quota. At the same time Randbek is told that there is an addition to their team, but immediately disapproves when he discovers Henrik's age and weak appearance. We get to follow the three men on their hunt to fulfil the quota, through a landscape seductively beautiful in its cold nakedness. Henrik is immediately nicknamed Larsen, in a kind of demeaning military jargon. From the beginning Randbek does his utmost to break the newcomer through physical and psychological violence. Henrik has his own way of dealing with the inner and outer cold. He plays his violin and slowly rereads the passionate letter Gertrude gave him before his departure. During the short breaks in his work he tries to write poetry about the state of things and the surrounding landscape where he has found himself. His poetry stops when the disillusioned Randbek bans this pastime with the comment: there is no time for such nonsense. The relationship between the newcomer and the supervisor turns into a drawn-out duel where the stronger survives. The quiet scientist Holm is the only one to keep them in balance. Sometimes the battle stops, for example during the unexpected Christmas festivities when Randbek gets to show a new side to his bitter and tired character. Stellan Skarsgard as the supervisor shows a resigned self-contempt of the more violent kind and together with the rest of the cast he creates dramatic art of great dimensions. Zero Kelvin is mostly a very suggestive chamber play. When people are exposed to each other in nature's own monotonic isolation, they do everything to keep their dignity. The positions of power are constantly changing and turn into a competition between personalities who slowly merge into one. The music, which sounds as if it is coming out of the bowel of a shaman spirit, adds to the very tense atmosphere. The images on the screen are powerful. The cruelty of man gets centre stage whilst the magnificence of nature lurks murmuring in the wings. MAD

Premiärstatus
Internationell premiär: Orig. titel
LARSEN: Medverkande
Stellan Skarsgård, Gard B. Eidsvold, Bjørn Sundquist: Producent
Bent Rognlien: Manus
Lars Bill Lundholm & Hans Petter Moland, based on a novel Peter Tutein: Foto
Philip Ogaard: Musik
Terje Rypdal: Talat språk
Norwegian, Swedish, English Subtitles