Erik Poppe’s ‘Beloved’ to Open Haugesund: ‘All Eyes Are on Norway,’ Says Festival Chief Tonje Hardersen
The Norwegian International Film Festival will open with director Erik Poppe's adaptation of an original screenplay by Nobel laureate Jon Fosse. The film depicts the intimate life of a couple—a sailor and his wife—in a small coastal community, with production design centred on the austere Nordic landscape. Poppe describes the work as countercultural in its emphasis on tenderness and connection, offering what he frames as a necessary alternative to cynical contemporary storytelling.
The 54th edition runs late August with approximately 90 features and shorts, including 22 Norwegian productions. The festival's closing selection will be 'The Murder of Benjamin', a drama centred on a 2001 real-world killing motivated by racial hatred. Festival leadership has identified examination of societal fractures as a central programming theme, with multiple films exploring tensions and divisions within Norwegian society.
- Erik Poppe's 'Beloved'—an adaptation of a Nobel Prize winner's screenplay—will premiere as the opening film of the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund (Aug 22–28)
- The drama follows a sailor and his wife navigating their relationship in a Norwegian coastal setting; Poppe emphasises the film's focus on emotional closeness and hope
- The festival programmes 22 Norwegian features and 15 shorts; closing film 'The Murder of Benjamin' addresses a 2001 racially motivated killing, reflecting the year's thematic focus on societal fractures