A bittersweet story of a failing father seeking redemption from his daughters wins the Oscar for best international film.
OSLO: Norwegian family drama ‘Sentimental Value’ won the Oscar for best international film on Sunday.
The bittersweet story follows an ageing, absent father seeking forgiveness from his daughters who have learned to get along without him.
Arthouse filmmaker Gustav Borg, played by Sweden’s Stellan Skarsgard, turns up at his ex-wife’s funeral years after abandoning his family.
He re-enters his daughters’ lives and offers the eldest, troubled actress Nora, the lead in his next movie.
The film becomes a painful dissection of past traumas and unspoken tensions.
Borg writes a suicide scene for Nora, unaware his daughter once tried to end her own life.
Younger sister Agnes, played by Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, has grown into the family’s rock.
“It sounds cheesy, but I wept a lot making this film because I was so moved by the actors,” director Joachim Trier said last year.
He penned the script with his screenwriting partner Eskil Vogt.
Critics broadly hailed the actors’ performances.
Both Skarsgard and Lilleaas were nominated for best supporting actor and actress.
Renate Reinsve, who plays Nora, was nominated for best actress.
American actress Elle Fanning was also nominated in the best supporting actress category.
The beautiful old Scandinavian-style wooden home in Oslo where the film was shot is itself a character.
It bears the emotional weight of several generations in its walls.
“The house is a witness of the unspoken,” Trier told Script Magazine.
At its Cannes premiere, the film received a 19-minute standing ovation and won the Grand Prix.
It received nine Academy Award nominations and eight BAFTA nominations.
It won the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language.
“I wanted to work with him, because I felt that he can get something out of me that maybe someone else can’t,” Skarsgard said of Trier.
The 74-year-old actor noted he was well-suited for the role of a father with many children.
Trier has said the filmmaker father is a mash-up of great auteurs like Ingmar Bergman.
Despite its success, some Norwegian critics saw the film as too slick and self-absorbed.
Nonetheless, it broke every box office record for a Norwegian film.
The Sun Malaysia
