Dagmar: L'âme des vikings

Flawlessly crafted and acted. Each of the characters engages your interest, even the evil ones some sympathy as one senses their back stories. The landscapes scenes transcend the clichés of "beautiful nature" and reveal it as sometimes magnificent, sometimes dangerous, and often simply what nature at the end of the day is; a universe we did not make that is neither for nor against us.

The story line has been done many times, but there is a freshness in this film, an immediacy, and a sense of deft actuality that places you there. Nothing is wasted, nothing is overdone, and with each shot the characters reveal not the standard villains of the era, but merely people caught up in the after effects of the Black Plague's having ravaged the stability of Europe.

For some reason this is on prime video but has no subtitles. I think it's Norwegian. Even without subtitles you understand 90% of what's going on. The acting is very good, amazing cinematography and I mean truly amazing. If you're bored just give it a try.

Although I enjoyed the director's first movie, Cold Prey, I didn't expect to like Escape as much as I did. Set in medieval Norway, it's a bleak, atmospheric and thrilling movie with great acting (from the first-time child actors as well), great cinematography, and an eerie soundtrack that fits perfectly.

Its story about a girl escaping from a camp and being hunted by her captors is simple and not too original (it reminds me a bit of Apocalypto, which I'm sure wasn't the first to do this either), but it's executed so well that didn't bother me at all. If you're into movies like Black Death and Evil Rising (Sauna), you're definitely going to want to check this one out.

I am extremely surprised by the low scores of this good movie in IMDb. I never heard of it until today. Watched it without expectations but without preconceptions as well. Big surprise, this movie was well-timed, didn't lose time with unnecessary dialogs, didn't stretch situations. It is plain, you live or you die. Acting was remarkably good, photography and cinematography impeccable. The most important: was entertaining, and very engaging (you side-up immediately with the good ones and want the bad ones to die, because they are good actors, the really make you believe they are bad, bad people). In less than an hour and a half, you have a good movie, a good story well told. I wonder why the hobbit needs 9 hours to be told... (yes that was sarcasm). Watch Flukt, it is a very good movie.

So let's call it or rather a few things here for what they are: convinient! And yes that means that they happen so the movie and our character can move along. If you have issues with them, you might not feel that the movie deserve the rating I gave it. Fair enough.

Having said that, it is a thriller, things that are or seem unlikely will happen. Overall it is very well shot though and you are immersed into the story. Or can be - which is quite something if you watch the outtakes after the movie is over (on the disc version I own) - it seems so far removed. And it is a testament to the actors for going to that place ... literally and metaphorically speaking