There seems to be a problem when it comes to Norwegian movies. They have a tendency of lacking the gusto and spirit of the people, as does this movie. It has the potential of having quite a good strength as far as movies go, but lacks the spirit and the progress that is the sign of a great story.
6 Reviews
A grim but deeply moving glimpse of medieval Norway.
tonyglad15 November 1998
It distresses me to have to disagree with Shane Burridge, whose reviews are always well informed and intelligent. In this case I must, lest any viewers who would appreciate this film are deterred. I have to confess to a particular interest, since I used to teach medieval literature. Even reasonably decent movie recreations of medieval life are very few, while cosmetic fantasies are legion. The plot of this film is admittedly limited in scope, but the detail and atmosphere of Norway at the time of the "Black Death" which, as Mr Burridge points out, killed two-thirds of the population, are completely engrossing and terrifying. A village wedding feast can lead virtually to the end of the world and this is experienced by a small girl, spared only because she was away on the mountain side minding the sheep! Perhaps the ending is a little too contrived, but without it the film would be unendurably sad, as indeed must have been so for so many millions at the time. The picture is bleak but beautiful to watch, the actors are completely believable and the leading child is so engaging (but not in any way cute) that the experience is one that I shall never forget. The bonus is that the dialogue is in Norwegian. (Not medieval, but then the home audience had to understand it.) This will never, I admit, appeal to a wide audience, at least outside Norway, but for those who know what they are looking for, it is a small treasure.
Excellent movie, with global appeal
ups1971-12 July 2007
Warning: Spoilers
About the previous comment that only Norwegains would truly understand this movie - that could be partly true, but there's something universally appealing about this movie that everyone would enjoy. I saw this movie in India in 1995 on Star Movies (TV channel) with English sub-titles, and I was very moved by it. The most touching moments for me were when the child reaches out to the mother and the mother pushes the child away to avoid infecting the child. I have two small kids, and I can't imagine what that mother must have felt. I also liked the way the girl was shown adapting to a solitary life in the mountains after everyone dies. It's great the girl was reunited with her father, it must have been horrible if she were to go through life as an orphan in such tragic circumstances.
Almost impossible to find..
laerikli31 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Warning: There may be some spoilers in this review, so you should read it AFTER watching the film.
The most frustrating about this movie, is that it is very hard to get hold of. It's only released on DVD in the Czech Republic, and it can be tricky to find it.
Anyway, this review is based on the VHS-rip on YouTube, which is taken from a Norwegian VHS (with no subtitles, not even Norwegian subs), released in the mid-90's. I have been looking for the original VHS of "Trollsyn", but it seems to be impossible to find.. Very frustrating indeed.
I have seen some of director Ola Solum's work before, some of it are quite good (like "Orions Belte"), and some are quite bad (like "Turnaround"), but I was intrigued by the story in "Trollsyn", as it is about the time when the Black Plague made a devastating impact on the people in Norway. Thousands and thousands died in horrible ways from 1349, when the plague entered Norway. Worldwide it is said that probably 75 million people died from the plague.
The main character in "Trollsyn" is Maren, a little girl who lives in Jostedalen with her family. They have retreated to this desolate location to escape the plague, at least that's what the story about "Jostedalsrypa" says, and "Trollsyn" is based upon that story. During a wedding-party, the plague suddenly makes people sick, but not Maren, because she went with her father up into the mountains to learn how to herd sheep. Her father leaves Maren alone to do her work, and the little girl stays alone in the mountains with the sheep for a while, before going back to her house and family, but the plague have killed off almost everyone, except her mom, but she is also dying...
Maren's father is gone (we don't know where..), and Maren is left alone, trying to survive on her own.
Life alone in the mountains is not easy for a little girl, and Maren reacts like any other kid, with fear and sorrow, but after a while she finds joy in playing with sticks and stones, and she really enjoys and love the nature around her. She is also clairvoyant and can see the dead people in frightening visions, those who died from the plague, and these visions terrify her. This is also about the meaning of the word "Trollsyn", which would translate into something like "trolls vision", in other words it describes her clairvoyance, that she can see things other can't.
In many ways this is a "strange" movie. The story may seem to be slow and not moving in some parts of the film, but at the same time, it allows us to get into the world of Maren, to see things from her perspective and to experience everything with her. The photography in "Trollsyn" is outstanding, and the music by Jan Garbarek is very powerful and really suits the film well. Julia Onsager Steen, who plays the role of Maren, does a really good job, and we - the audience, really cares about this little girl.
And the nature! The nature in this film is stunning!! I cannot understand at all why this film is NOT available on blu-ray? With such fantastic nature-scenery and excellent photography, it would really look amazing on blu-ray! So why cannot any distributor release this hidden treasure of a film on DVD and blu-ray?!?!?
"Trollsyn" is a film you may dislike if you expect "full action" every fifth minute of the film. Then you better stick to the mainstream Hollywood-pictures. "Trollsyn" is more the type of film that sticks with you, grows and evolves in time.
Anyway, I really liked "Trollsyn". I love the story about the little girl who have to survive on her own. I like her relationship with nature. I like the "mystical and mysterious" part of it. I like the scenery and photography, probably some of the best we have seen in a Norwegian film. I love the music. I love how authentic it looks in regards to costume, houses etc. It really looks like it was shot in 1349. Dirty, gritty and hard. Not like what you see in a romanticized middle-ages movie from Hollywood.
The only thing you could say something negative about, is that the film is quite slow paced, and from time to time it may seem not to move in any direction. But when thinking about it, after "digesting" the film for a few days, I understand the reasons why. I believe the director wanted the audience to experience the life of Maren, from Marens perspective.
Watch "Trollsyn" if you can find it. The YouTube-version have no subtitles and it does contain a very strange, Norwegian dialect, so it's hard to understand, even for Norwegians. Then again, you could still watch the film without understanding the language, and still understand the story. But I really hope some distributor will find the time and effort to release "Trollsyn" on blu-ray. The film really deserves it. This was the last film by director Ola Solum before he died in 1996, so at least, honor his memory and make "Trollsyn" available to a bigger audience. Please.
The most frustrating about this movie, is that it is very hard to get hold of. It's only released on DVD in the Czech Republic, and it can be tricky to find it.
Anyway, this review is based on the VHS-rip on YouTube, which is taken from a Norwegian VHS (with no subtitles, not even Norwegian subs), released in the mid-90's. I have been looking for the original VHS of "Trollsyn", but it seems to be impossible to find.. Very frustrating indeed.
I have seen some of director Ola Solum's work before, some of it are quite good (like "Orions Belte"), and some are quite bad (like "Turnaround"), but I was intrigued by the story in "Trollsyn", as it is about the time when the Black Plague made a devastating impact on the people in Norway. Thousands and thousands died in horrible ways from 1349, when the plague entered Norway. Worldwide it is said that probably 75 million people died from the plague.
The main character in "Trollsyn" is Maren, a little girl who lives in Jostedalen with her family. They have retreated to this desolate location to escape the plague, at least that's what the story about "Jostedalsrypa" says, and "Trollsyn" is based upon that story. During a wedding-party, the plague suddenly makes people sick, but not Maren, because she went with her father up into the mountains to learn how to herd sheep. Her father leaves Maren alone to do her work, and the little girl stays alone in the mountains with the sheep for a while, before going back to her house and family, but the plague have killed off almost everyone, except her mom, but she is also dying...
Maren's father is gone (we don't know where..), and Maren is left alone, trying to survive on her own.
Life alone in the mountains is not easy for a little girl, and Maren reacts like any other kid, with fear and sorrow, but after a while she finds joy in playing with sticks and stones, and she really enjoys and love the nature around her. She is also clairvoyant and can see the dead people in frightening visions, those who died from the plague, and these visions terrify her. This is also about the meaning of the word "Trollsyn", which would translate into something like "trolls vision", in other words it describes her clairvoyance, that she can see things other can't.
In many ways this is a "strange" movie. The story may seem to be slow and not moving in some parts of the film, but at the same time, it allows us to get into the world of Maren, to see things from her perspective and to experience everything with her. The photography in "Trollsyn" is outstanding, and the music by Jan Garbarek is very powerful and really suits the film well. Julia Onsager Steen, who plays the role of Maren, does a really good job, and we - the audience, really cares about this little girl.
And the nature! The nature in this film is stunning!! I cannot understand at all why this film is NOT available on blu-ray? With such fantastic nature-scenery and excellent photography, it would really look amazing on blu-ray! So why cannot any distributor release this hidden treasure of a film on DVD and blu-ray?!?!?
"Trollsyn" is a film you may dislike if you expect "full action" every fifth minute of the film. Then you better stick to the mainstream Hollywood-pictures. "Trollsyn" is more the type of film that sticks with you, grows and evolves in time.
Anyway, I really liked "Trollsyn". I love the story about the little girl who have to survive on her own. I like her relationship with nature. I like the "mystical and mysterious" part of it. I like the scenery and photography, probably some of the best we have seen in a Norwegian film. I love the music. I love how authentic it looks in regards to costume, houses etc. It really looks like it was shot in 1349. Dirty, gritty and hard. Not like what you see in a romanticized middle-ages movie from Hollywood.
The only thing you could say something negative about, is that the film is quite slow paced, and from time to time it may seem not to move in any direction. But when thinking about it, after "digesting" the film for a few days, I understand the reasons why. I believe the director wanted the audience to experience the life of Maren, from Marens perspective.
Watch "Trollsyn" if you can find it. The YouTube-version have no subtitles and it does contain a very strange, Norwegian dialect, so it's hard to understand, even for Norwegians. Then again, you could still watch the film without understanding the language, and still understand the story. But I really hope some distributor will find the time and effort to release "Trollsyn" on blu-ray. The film really deserves it. This was the last film by director Ola Solum before he died in 1996, so at least, honor his memory and make "Trollsyn" available to a bigger audience. Please.
Excellent film.....but only for Norwegians !!!!
pergynt25 September 1999
I saw the film at The Norwegian film festival in Rome,Italy in the spring of 1997, and it was the film I enjoyed the most. I loved the dialect(Western Norway),the landscape scenes were beautiful. Ola Solum(film director) managed to make an interesting film staged in the deepest of medieval times and centered in a single valley of the countryside. The tragedy of the film is the arrival of the plague that kills everyone in the countryside hamlet except for a 6 yr.old girl who has to fend for herself for almost a year. When some hunters passed by(legend has it) she lived and behaved like a wild animal!!....and was treated with suspicion and dread by the neighbouring villagers ...as she had become according to them a witch !! For Norwegians this film as a special resonance,since the plague was considered one of the two major tragedies to befall Norway in it's history(the other was the Nazi occupation during the second world war!)..the plague killed so many Norwegians that the country seriously weakened came to lose it's independence and be subjucated to Danish rule for 700 years. It's a film only Norwegians can appreciate truly, for the above mentioned reasons,and especially for me as I am an ex-patriot Norwegian.
I saw this over 20 years ago and have NEVER forgotten it.
zillah-7414721 March 2020
Warning: Spoilers
There's something very compelling about this tale of life in mediaeval Norway, with its incredibly eerie soundtrack by Jan Gabarek, and stunning scenery. We see mountain village life, before it is snuffed out by the Black Death. The village witch makes a devastating sacrifice to save her little daughter, who becomes a lone feral child, surviving off the remaining village supplies and what she finds in the woods. When people from the town down the mountain come to investigate, they take her away to a new life where it is revealed that she is truly her mother's daughter. I saw this when it came out with English subtitles on SBS TV in Australia, I would LOVE to have it on DVD!!
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