Nokas

This movie will not necessarily disappoint, but probably surprise those expecting a traditional movie with a plot and character progression etc. Nokas has none of that. Instead this is an extremely detailed reenactment of the robbery, based on witness statements, security camera footage and interviews with police officers and even some of the robbers.

The movie begins with the gang getting dressed and ready to go, and ends with them taking off with the money. Everything in between is basically the big heist scene from the movie Heat, Norwegian style, for 80 minutes.

To understand why anyone would make a movie like this, you'd probably have to be Norwegian. And what I mean by that is that Norway is a very small country where bank robberies of any kind are very uncommon. Needless to say a robbery of this magnitude resulted in an absurd media circus which literally lasted for years. All the robbers became household names and some even got their own "super villain" nicknames, such as "The Shadow" and "The Master Brain". The general fascination only grew as the leader of the gang, while hiding from the police, supposedly ordered the armed robbery of the Munch Museum in Oslo where two of the world's most famous paintings, Scream and Madonna where stolen in order to force the police to shift focus.

Anyway, the movie is great. And what makes it so is the authenticity and the fact that this is what really happened. Normally when movies are based on real events, we get the directors own interpretation of what "might" have happened, often an interpretation full of nonsense and "liberties with the truth" in order to make it work as a movie. But no, this is it. This is as close to a real robbery you'll ever get on the screen. Even small details such as certain gestures, which can be seen in the real security footage, have been carefully duplicated. This makes for an extremely tense ride which will surely keep anyone interested in heist movies on the edge of their seat all the way through.

It's also quite chocking to see exactly how the police engaged the heavily armed robbers in a fierce firefight, in the middle of a town with hundreds of civilians in the area. How they continued to provoke the robbers even after hostages was taken, and finally how it all resulted in the death of a police officer. After watching the movie it seems as an even greater miracle that no one else got killed. Hopefully the Norwegian police have learned exactly why robbers carry heavy firearms. "The Master Brain" even explains it in the beginning of the movie when he says something like: "If the police shows up, just pad your weapons and show them we're the strongest. They won't engage". Well, they did. And it didn't end well.

This movie is an interesting project, as it tries, more than anything else, to be accurate. Everything on location, local actors, following the actual events as closely as possible. This is not enough to make it a good movie, but it does make it interesting.

But this is more than any "TV-recreation", because it's obvious that director has a certain ambition here. The movie "Heat" is directly mentioned in this, as it distances itself from it. They wanted to go in a different direction, and they achieved it. Despite a lot of action, it never feels like an action movie.

But it's a challenge to make a movie telling a story from several perspectives at the same time, especially if you don't lend yourself the freedom to change the chronology up a bit to make it more exciting. This leads to the movie jumping back and forwards in time quite a bit. It never really gets confusing, but the solution is not ideal.

While much of the acting is good, there are certain deliveries of dialogue that takes you our of the experience. But considering the project, it's worth going for the local actors.

The NOKAS robbery was a huge thing here in Norway. It was historical, stuff like this very rarely happens in our rather big, but people-empty little strip of land. It was a real talker, on the news and in the newspapers for a long time.

Anyhow, after the world controversy had died down and most of the crooks were in prison, the movie about it all came out.

Now, this is not a bad movie. Considering it's Norwegian it is rather good. But it never crosses the line into real good territory.

Most of the actors aren't big names, or really famous at all, and that works pretty good in something like this, as you don't want to be too attached to the actors. They do a decent job, too.

It has some intense action, some cool shots, and it being true of course leave a little bit of an impact. But I do think it could have been a little more edgy, for it to come across as more dramatical. I don't know.

It's alright.

Nokas is a a paradox that works. This careful reconstruction of Norway's biggest ever robbery avoids all sense of cliché - and opts for one of the better directorial decision seen in a crime / heist movie. No drama, no screaming villains or pretty girls, this is a superbly researched semi-documentary that simple records a five hour period in minutiae - yet it is tense, involving, and probably the best recreation of a bank robbery I have seen.

The Nordic style of speaking and manner is captured well - no-one "acts" they simply are, and here we get almost no character development - it's straight-up storytelling, using a lot of mid-shoulder mid-close and close-ups - it is well shot. The camera work etc; fits this well - it never feels amateurish.

Considering how iconic this real event was - in a country where bank robbery is extremely rare - they could have over-glamourised and made a Nordic Heat; by avoiding that trap they had made cinema, a film's film, and one where integrity respects the events but never loses the sense of adrenalin.

Good film-making all round.

The Poster of Nokas and the robbery theme, lured me in. Particularly striking was the wide depth of field portrayed in the poster, generally only achieved by SLR cameras and lenses.

In the case of Nokas, What you see is indeed What you get.

STORY: The story is the realistic re-creation of a robbery that played out in 2004 in a European theater (Norway). Realistic means, real people loosing their nerves, being hysteric and not playing the heroes in world abiding by physical laws.

SCREENPLAY: The screenplay is well done and traces out the robbery from the first and third person POV, following various people including the robbers and the police.

SOUND: The sound design is slightly above average. There is little background music, and nothing that stood out to me.

VERDICT: 10/10 I consider this a masterpiece, for the being the first of its kind employing this technology in a well-executed, realistic robbery-themed movie.

TECHNOLOGY: Technologically the new camera generation means wider picture angles, shallower depth of field, incredible low light performance, and above all a field of view which allows for a First person perspective. (PS: I didn't find any information regarding the actual camera setup the crew used)

For gamers, the POV perspective is the next best thing to 3D, of putting the viewer directly into the action.