Anja Breien

Through conversations with an array of Norwegian writers, filmmakers, psychiatrists, artists and more, Izquierdo investigates the impact of both the film and novel Sult by Knut Hamsun on generations of Norwegian culture and artistic practice, while exploring how it could speak about what it means to be an artist today.

Director/actor Eugenio Barba returns to Oslo, where he started Odin Teatret, to Opole, where Jerzy Grotowsky's " theatre of the poor" developed a new physical play style, to avoid communism's censorship. And to Holstebro, where Odin Teatrets presence has greatly influenced the city's development.

A film poem - without words

Gaining unprecedented access to the heart of the Yezidi community, this revealing documentary unveils the ways of a Kurdish religious minority that has traditionally been surrounded by mystery. The elusive portrait of a world that seems to exist and survive outside the boundaries of time, abiding by its own set of eternal rules. A breathtaking journey into the soul at a population remorselessly hunted and persecuted that urges us to take a distance from our established viewpoint.

A poetic film about a cruel theme, told in a way that doesn't make the spectators close their eyes.

5.3/10

A weathered face, an old man skiing in Rondane ... Neapolitan song, music over the snow - memories of childhood summers, a boat ... The landscape is snowy now - a boat here ... In the snow?

5.6/10

Anja Breien came across a box of glass plate negatives that her grandmother had photographed, many of them with remote trigger. Breien made contact copies of them and discovered a poetic talent. This film is an attempt to get a piece of her grandmother's life, of family life? an attempt to grab a forgotten past. Can we remember others' memories?

3.4/10

This mellow comedy is the third entry in filmmaker Anja Breien's "Wives" series and stars the same three actresses who appeared in the first two. This episodic film begins with flashbacks to the 1975 film Wives and scenes from 1985's Wives: Ten Years Later. Now ten more years have passed and they are comfortably ensconced in middle age. They have gathered to hold a surprise birthday for Kaja aboard an Oslo streetcar. The three haven't seen each other in ages and much of the story focuses on their discussions of their disparate lives. Every word, smile and tear they share affirms the depth of their lasting friendship.

4.8/10

Maren, a young girl, is the sole survivor of the Black Death in her Norwegian village. Using instincts, folklore, luck, and the clairvoyant powers granted her by being born with a "Victory Cap," Maren survives on her own, waiting for other people to discover her plight.

6.5/10

Ten years have passed since our three heroines' first outing in 1975. Now the women meet at yet another class reunion. Not surprisingly, they are still unwilling to call it a night after the party is over. Husbands and children must celebrate Christmas as best they can, while the women spend quality time drinking and taking stock of their lives.

4.2/10

Having gone through many personal struggles, Eli (Lil Terselius) returns to her native village and begins to work on the farm of Ingeborg Eriksdotter (Anita Bjork), eventually tending a plot that once belonged to her family. But Eli has been gone a long time, and the opaque villagers see her as an outsider—she is suspicious from the start. The year is 1625, and stories of witches conjuring up evil are a part of the daily culture. Eli unwittingly makes matters worse for herself when she is able to cure the sick with herbs, and when she begins an affair with Aslak (Bjoern Skagestad) a farmhand—clearly she must have cast a spell on him. This all adds up to a witch hunt with a ready-made "witch." Eli, in the end, is officially accused of witchcraft by a devious bailiff, while Ingeborg makes every attempt to save her, and Aslak himself does not survive the stress—hardly a good omen for the outcome of the trial.

6.1/10

Gathered at a funeral for a successful business man, the testament is to be read. They will all inherit, with a big IF; if the family company is to be joint run by all the heirs.

5.5/10

This co-production between Norway and Sweden is the first film that Anja Breien has made since Wives. She has adapted a novel by Hjalmar Soderberg. who also wrote 'Gertrud' from which Carl Dreyer's last film was made, and Doctor Glas' (made into a film by Mai Zetterhng) Games of Love and Loneliness, concerns the manners and mores of Scandinavian society between the years 1897 and 1912. A young journalist, Arvid, falls in love with a girl but won't commit himself to marrying her. She marries an older and richer man and he's pushed into marrying the girl he's been sleeping with. He meets his first love again, and she leaves her husband to have an affair with him, but he still cannot bring himself to leave his wife. Although Anja Breien has changed the character of the girl to make her less of a femme fatale and more of an emancipated woman, the film's central concern is the young man who cannot make up his mind what to do with his life.

5.6/10

The first of Anja Breiens Wives trilogy.

5.5/10
6.7%

A short film about the prison system and the incarcerated, seen from the inside as well as from the outside. Norwegian director Anja Breien's short is a response to the headlines of its time.

It's winter in a suburb. A housewife is brutally raped. A young woman becomes a victim of attempted rape. The Police tighten noose on Anders, a young road worker who was seen on the site in both cases. The two women think they recognize him in the lineup, and police investigators use all their strength to solve the case. Anders is a common and simple individual. He could be any youth. The meeting with the ongoing investigation and the solid judiciary, forces him out of a seemingly monotonous, habitual life and forces him to react and think.

6.5/10

An episode film initiated by Erik Borge, the fresh director of Norwegian Film, giving fresh film makers a chance of being seen by a big audience. Anja Breien, Egil Kolstø and Espen Thorstensons got the chance with very diverse films.An episode film initiated by Erik Borge, the fresh director of Norwegian Film, giving fresh film makers a chance of being seen by a big audience. Anja Breien, Egil Kolstø and Espen Thorstensons got the chance with very diverse films.

3.5/10

Norway's National Day on 17 May has over the years evolved to be a day marked by rituals and phrases which may no longer have as much content for most people. The film shows us some of these rituals we know so well, so we can chuckle over May 17.

5.6/10

A film about faces, about expressions, about situations. The film is based on a poem by the Danish poet Poul Borum. The recordings are made in the Munch Museum in Oslo and based on the faces of Munch's pictures.

The film is based on a legend that goes back to 1349, when the black plague reached Norway after ravaging in Europe. Legend of a little girl, the sole survivor plague in the isolated mountain village Justedalen. The girl closely linked to nature and becomes like a wild bird, says the legend.

Brothers Ola and Jon waiting for his father's new boat to go out fishing for herring . The father has invested a lot of money in the boat and hoping for the big catch , but Ola is heart broken and goes on a drinking binge

5.7/10

We get to follow Arne Bendik Sjur into his imaginary world. This artist wants his graphics to touch men's lives, our anxiety, and our foreignness towards each other. Some of the anxieties of expressionist art can be found in his works, together with witchcraft and imagination.

A documentary short about elders in Norway.

6.8/10

A short essay from Anja Breien about her father

5.6/10

A political short from Norwegian director Anja Breien.