Violent (2014)

This is one of those (largely) arthouse films within which everyone will see, digest and take away something different. It's a sumptuous Norwegian work of art with gorgeous photography, brought to us by Canadian director Andrew Huculiak, out to make us think and reflect along with the main character.

Dagny Backer Johnsen plays the lead, using her real first name, as a young lady who is facing death, involved in a brief catastrophic event - which lasts the length of the film as she rolls us flashbacks of snips of her life, focusing on five people who have loved her the most.

We accompany her as she contemplates a move from one town to another and is offered a job in a shop and accommodation above by someone she used to know when she was a child back in the first town. The first chapter unfolds as we explore his thoughts about her as they work together and she lives above. A grim and lonely existence in an unexciting situation - a dour and unkempt flat and knowing nobody except for her now, employer. And he turns out to be not quite what she had hoped.

She's gone to the town so that she can be near her best friend from years ago, but when she gets there, the friend announces that she and her partner have decided to move away. We experience Dagny's joy in reunion, then the impact of immediate, violent destruction and loss.

We further follow her as she bumps into other people along the way, but after each chapter of the film we have a reflective consideration about water, electricity and the noise a fridge makes as she says goodbye to each of the five who have loved her, still heading towards her catastrophic, violent end.

I'll keep the details short so as not to spoil anything but Johnsen has been nicely picked for the role, sweet, innocent, green, but clearly looking - through these encounters - for something in herself (to take to her grave). It's a beautifully shot film, with a story which unfolds slowly, but at an appropriate pace, which I found charming and engrossing. A person reflecting the meaning of life, love and relationships. It really needs to be watched a second time, too. I have to admit that the first time I didn't really 'get it' but the second, I was more in-tune with what was being portrayed and said.

Dagny carries the film beautifully but is very ably supported by other actors in the mix the best of which being the character's grandfather (played by Yngve Seterås) who, in the last five minutes, brings the most moving finale which could have been imagined as he sits telling Dagny about the last moments of his wife's life, offering her some deep hope through reflection. The film ends with a bright flash of light. It's beautifully touching and moving.