Growth of the Soil Review: Moland's Norway Oscar Entry — SkimNews
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- "Growth of the Soil" is Hans Petter Moland's period epic adapted from Knut Hamsun's two-volume 1917 novel, selected as Norway's international Oscar submission — his second after "Out Stealing Horses."
- Herbert Nordrum and Asta Kamma August reunite as homesteading couple Isak and Inger after their 2023 pairing in "The Hypnosis," for which Nordrum won Best Actor at Karlovy Vary.
- The 155-minute film premiered at Toronto and was co-written by Moland and Gard B. Eidsvold, with rugged cinematography by Oskar Dahlsbakken and a sound design the review says is at least as prominent as the score.
- The plot tracks a naïve couple building a farm in early 20th-century northern Norway whose life is shattered when Inger, who has a cleft palate, commits "an act of unthinkable desperation" after their third child is born.
- Nordrum, who broke out in "The Worst Person in the World," is set to appear in upcoming English-language productions "Sense and Sensibility" and "Everybody Wants to Fuck Me" — a rising profile the review credits as the film's main international asset in the absence of a Skarsgård-level crossover star.
- August is the daughter of "Pelle the Conqueror" director Bille August, and the review compares "Growth of the Soil" to the rustic arthouse epics of that filmmaker's heyday.
Why it matters: Norway is pinning its Oscar hopes on a stately 155-minute literary adaptation without a Skarsgård-level star, leaning instead on the rising Nordrum — whose upcoming English-language slate could amplify reach beyond arthouse audiences — and on the proven chemistry between Nordrum and August, which already earned Nordrum a Karlovy Vary win in "The Hypnosis."
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