Belønningen

Belønningen deals with the after-effects of WWII in Oslo, contrasting the lives of two former work colleagues who chose different allies during the war: Reidar joining the resistance and Sverre doing work for the Germans. The former has ended up down and out on the street, the latter is a prominent business man, ostensibly as a result of the profits he made from his war-time contracts. The film is told from a highly socialistic viewpoint, but without bias or simplifications, and this makes it both interesting and valid, despite director Bjørn Lien's amplified lingering over the film's small-scale incidents. What Belønningen cannot conceal, however, is its clumsy craftsmanship and often awkward dramatizations, stemming from the contemporary Norwegian film tradition to which this entry belonged. Some of the performances have potency, but the performers (especially those in supporting roles) are either overly theatrical or completely incompetent, and the result is often melodramatic in a film that would have profited from a more pragmatic narrative approach.

*Review written in 2011.