Countries & Movies: Norway
Norwegian cinema is represented in the Golden Thousand by one film - Morten Tyldum's thriller "Hodejegerne (Headhunters)".
The film is based on the novel of the same name by the Norwegian master of detective novels Jo Nesbø, published in 2008.
The film premiered on 4 August 2011 as part of the screening at the Variety Piazza Grande section of the Locarno International Film Festival (Switzerland).
On August 26, 2011, the film began to be shown in cinemas in Norway, where it gathered more than 552 thousand moviegoers, or more than 11% of the country's population, in a year. With this indicator, Morten Tyldum's film became the leader of the film distribution in Norway, overtaking all domestic and foreign films.
The success of the film among the domestic cinema audience provided it with interest from foreign distributors, thanks to which the film was sold to more than 50 countries. This fact was reflected in the financial performance of the picture: with a budget of approximately $ 3.4 million, its box office receipts amounted to almost $ 19 million. Including, the picture earned 167 thousand dollars in Russia.
Morten Tyldum's film "Headhunters" did not have any special festival successes. The most serious festival achievements of the film can be considered a nomination for the British BAFTA Award in the category Best Foreign Language Film. But the strongest competition in this category left the Norwegian film without an award. Suffice it to say that the victory was awarded by the decision of the British film academies to Michael Haneke's film "Amour", and the company of "relative losers" to Morten Tyldum's picture was the Danish film "Jagten (The Hunt)" by Thomas Vinterberg and the French film by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano "Intouchables".
By most professional film critics, Morten Tyldum's film "Headhunters" was rated very highly. Thus, the guru of American film criticism Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4 possible and in his review noted: "It's not often a thriller keeps me wound up as well as "Headhunters" did. I knew I was being manipulated and didn't care. It was a pleasure to see how well it was being done. Unlike too many thrillers that depend on stunts, special effects and the Queasy-Cam, this one devises a plot where it matters what happens."
Another authoritative American film critic, James Berardinelli, gave the film 3 out of 4 points and in his review explained his assessment in this way: "Headhunters contains many elements that appeal to audiences with an affinity for adult crime thrillers. There's plenty of sex, nudity, and violence; however, although some may seem a little gratuitous, they're all in service of a deliciously twisty narrative whose only real downside is an ending that feels a little too clean and pat. Still, while the conclusion may not be perfect, it's far from a disaster. At a time when many mystery thrillers fall apart in the final fifteen minutes, Headhunters maintains its integrity."
The audience's assessment of Morten Tyldum's "Headhunters" roughly coincides with that of leading American critics. 58% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave the film ratings from 8 to 10.
With that said, FilmGourmand rated Morten Tyldum's "Headhunters" at 7,821, placing it in the Golden Thousand, in which it got 963rd Rank.
