Når nettene blir lange

It's Christmastime in Norway and members of a family and all their relatives near and far are renting a log cabin to celibrate the happiest time of the Christian year. Family members from Poland are joining them too for this great family reunion.

The cabin is unexpectedly small and immediately one gets a claustrophobic feeling. Beds are tiered prison style and there is scarcely room around the communal table. Men and women and children seem to tumble over each other and a family dog adds to the confusion especially for an asthmatic sufferer.

Once the liquor starts to flow (it is so cold outside in the crisp snow) tongues are loosened and arguments start. At last we are beginning to find out who these people are, who is related to this one or that one, what their grudges are and the numerous family problems. Father it seems is the biggest problem of all. He just keeps drinking. And when he drinks he becomes abusive.

This is a DOGMA film. Understandably it would be difficult to hold the camera steady amid so much confusion in so little space. It has a theme similar to the Danish "Festen" also about a family celebration, but "Cabin Fever" is not as good. I think the characters of "Festen" are more interesting. However, I am glad I watched "Cabin Fever" to the end because it is in the closing scenes that the drama really takes hold. Father collapses after too much liquor and a bump on the head and is chucked out into the freezing night. In the morning he he he has vanished. I then begin to feel sorry for the harmless old man. Family members scream and burst into tears. What has happened to father? I think to myself the poor old chap is unconscious under the last snowfall....

A redeeming feature of the film is the scene where the joyful Christmas carollers burst in on the noisy quarrelling families. It is a truly beautiful and uplifting moment. Another nice scene is the bursting into song by the Polish family. The songs and music give something special to an otherwise dreary movie.

Norway's first official Dogma film begins with a Norwegian family - plus their Polish inlaws getting ready to spend a traditional Christmas together in a mountain cabin. But the tension between them begins to develop almost as soon as they arrive in the cramped cabin with the kerosene stove breaking down, one grandchild suffering an asthma attack, one of the daughters bursting into tears over the break-up of a relationship, another confiding that she has just had a miscarriage and the alcoholic father already nipping into the vodka. As the night draws on real feelings are revealed.

Cliched? Yes!

Good Film? So - So

Watchable? For Some

If you get bored so easily this is not a film for you. But I manage to sit through this horrible yet interesting film about a family celebrating Christmas in a small cabin ended up nearly killing each other.

The story is confusing, compare that to the irritating movement of the camera. I know! I know! It's a Dogma film but it's not a film that will turn up great when you film it Dogma style. It's set on probably the smallest cabin in Norway with the whole family (mum, dad, 3 grown up kids(?) with their husband/ wife/ children and two inlaws.....and dont forget about the dog!)

5 / 10

"Når nettene blir lange" starts with a rather chaotic introduction of it's main characters. It is chaotic in the way that we don't get introduced properly to anyone, instead it's just short cuts of a lot of stressed people. All these stressed people turn out to be a family; husbands, wives, parents and children (and a dog), on their way to a rented traditional Norwegian cottage for their yuletide celebration. But what is intended to be a nice family gathering and joining of it's new and old members turn out to be quite the opposite. The problems get piled up one onto the other; the cottage lacks of laid on water and electricity (it being a traditional Norwegian cottage and all) which seems to be a bit of an annoyance to the visiting Polish mother; one of the kids have a rather bad asthma problem, which are getting no better thanks to the dog running about the cottage; the good old "father of the family" has a bit of a problem with the concept of seeing alcohol and not drinking it, instantaneously. These problems and others, smaller and bigger ones, end up in a family Christmas dinner like one you've (hopefully) never experienced before.

I was a bit perplexed at the beginning of the film. Not only didn't I get hold on any of the characters, but the whole film looked a bit "amateurish" and possibly more like a documentary. Still as the film went on in the same mode I got to understand the genius of it. By luring us - the audience - to viewing the film as an amateur documentary it captures us in the realness of the film; this could have been "my" family. By doing this the culmination of the film gets closer to us and buggers us all the more.

As a Dogme film it is natural to compare it to other Dogme films, both in it's way of filming and storytelling. It is without doubt a close cousin of the Danish Dogme "Festen", and if you've seen either you are guaranteed to at least enjoy the other as well. I would also like to compare it a bit with the first "Blair witch project" film. Although far from being the same genre of film I think this comparison may explain the "amateurishness" I was speaking about.

As a final comment I would strongly recommend this film! And do not turn it off if you're, like I was, a bit perplexed after the first half-hour or so because you have to watch the whole film to really enjoy it.

Watching this movie was like a living nightmare, where I finally understood that the horror of all horror movies are the family dramas- The film manages to describe the Christmas act all of us put onvso well, there will never be any excuse any more for not being a nice human being for Christmas. The actors are brilliant, the dialogue engraves in your hearth since you recognize all the lines more or less from your own family life, and the story so universal in idepicting how destructively lojal children are to parents and traditions, your hearth bleed. In the end, when the victimised children finally gets back at their immature, emotionally dyslectic parents and leave them behind to clean up their own mess you want to run up and hug them all. This film is so authentic and full of will to make a change, it changed my entire life and made me understand the value of fighting bad family forever. Thank you!!!