01/03/2013 - Torun Lian's Victoria adaption and Arild Østin Ommundsen's It's Only Make Believe are among the local titles in this year's programme

Norwegian director Torun Lian’s Victoria – the first Norwegian-language adaptation of Norwegian Nobel laureate Knut Hamsun’s 1898 novel – opened Filmfest Oslo yesterday, the second edition of the showcase replacing the defunct Oslo International Film Festival, which runs through March 3.

Lian, Hamsun’s grandchild Leif Hamsun and Victoria producers John M Jacobsen, of Filmkameratene, and Pancho Kohner attended the screening at Oslo’s Klingenberg theatre, which will host the 52 screenings of 27 mainly Norwegian and Nordic films over the weekend.

Norwegian 23-year-old newcomer Iben M Akerlie stars with Norwegian actor Jakob Oftebro (Max Manus [+see also:
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Co-organised by Oslo Municipal Cinemas, Filmfest Oslo has tomorrow invited Norwegian director Arild Østin Ommundsen (Mongoland) and his lead actress Silje Salomonsen to attend a preview of their upcoming It’s Only Make Believe, about a young woman who returns to society after a 10-year prison sentence for murder.

Swedish director Gabriela Pichler will introduce her feature debut, Eat Sleep Die [+see also:
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interview: China Ahlander
interview: Gabriela Pichler
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International fare includes the US horror anthology, The ABCs of Death, from Drafthouse Films, Magnet Pictures and Timpson Films, where 26 directors (ao Norway’s Thomas Cappelen Malling) have been assigned a letter of the alphabet and the word of “death” to shoot a segment “of its vicious wonder and brutal reality.”