Norwegian noir with mordant gallows humour, this bloody tale of snowballing revenge reunites actor Stellan Skarsgård with director Hans Petter Moland ( Zero Kelvin, A Somewhat Gentle Man).
Screened as part of NZIFF 2014
In Order of Disappearance 2014
Kraftidioten
“There hasn’t been this much blood spilled in a frigid, snowbound landscape – especially with this much droll, dark humor – since the Coen Brothers fed a hapless Steve Buscemi into a wood chipper in Fargo. A vigorously plotted revenge saga about an aggrieved father who almost singlehandedly turns the icy mountainsides and fjords of small-town Norway into a criminal graveyard, In Order of Disappearance provides a wonderful vehicle for Stellan Skarsgård’s stone-faced gravitas and calm intelligence. It also marks a cracking new chapter in the actor’s collaboration with director Hans Petter Moland, which began in 1995 with Zero Kelvin… While it’s being somewhat reductively billed as an ‘action comedy,’ this is actually a much more subtle mix of contrasting tones, shifting fluidly from devastating family tragedy to pitiless violence to sharp observational and social humor, all wrapped up in a vivid sense of place. A very cold place.” — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
“What can I say? Sometimes you’re just happy to see Stellan Skarsgård show up riding a giant snowblower… These babies, as Skarsgård’s character tells us, can throw 40 tons of snow per minute, and boy, are they big. That’s a good thing, because Skarsgård’s dutiful, small-town civil servant, Nils Dickman, comes up against nasty drug-dealer villains, led by a pony-tailed vegan called ‘the Count’. Things get more complicated when a rival gang from Serbia cruises onto the scene, led by a papa-bear godfather type played, marvelously, by Bruno Ganz – his face is like an expressive potato.” — Stephanie Zacahrek, Village Voice