Cabin Fever (2000)
"Når nettene blir lange" (original title)

A large family is going to the mountain for their christmas vacation, in a rented cabin. Problems occur on Christmas Eve when the father gets drunk and his alcohol problem comes to show. We... See full summary »

Director:

Mona J. Hoel

Writer:

Mona J. Hoel

Stars:

Svein Scharffenberg, Gørild Mauseth, Zbigniew Zamachowski

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Svein Scharffenberg	...	Father Gunnar
Gørild Mauseth	...	Daughter Liv
Zbigniew Zamachowski	...	Brother-in-law
Kari Simonsen	...	Mother Astrid
Bjarte Hjelmeland	...	Eivind (as Bjarte Hjelmland)
Benedikte Lindbeck	...	Siri
Geir Kvarme	...	Per Arne
Turid Gunnes	...	Kari
Wieslawa Mazurkiewicz	...	Irina
Krister Henriksson	...	Svensken
Jerzy Nowak	...	Olek
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Martin Dauksza	...	Martin
Arne Mathias Myren	...	Morten (as Arne Mathias 'Noppers' Myren)
Moi Myren	...	Bikkja
Lukasz Stapf	...	Lukasz

Storyline

A large family is going to the mountain for their christmas vacation, in a rented cabin. Problems occur on Christmas Eve when the father gets drunk and his alcohol problem comes to show. We get to learn a lot about the family's background, and secrets are revealed. If you look behind the curtain, they've got a whole other story to tell than what it looks from the outside.

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Plot Keywords:

dogme 95

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Sweden Norway Denmark

Language:

Norwegian

Release Date:

24 November 2000 (Norway)

Also Known As:

Cabin Fever

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dis film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The first Norwegian movie to become an app.

User Reviews

Abysmal family secrets

"Når nettene blir lange" starts with a rather chaotic introduction of it's main characters. It is chaotic in the way that we don't get introduced properly to anyone, instead it's just short cuts of a lot of stressed people. All these stressed people turn out to be a family; husbands, wives, parents and children (and a dog), on their way to a rented traditional Norwegian cottage for their yuletide celebration. But what is intended to be a nice family gathering and joining of it's new and old members turn out to be quite the opposite. The problems get piled up one onto the other; the cottage lacks of laid on water and electricity (it being a traditional Norwegian cottage and all) which seems to be a bit of an annoyance to the visiting Polish mother; one of the kids have a rather bad asthma problem, which are getting no better thanks to the dog running about the cottage; the good old "father of the family" has a bit of a problem with the concept of seeing alcohol and not drinking it, instantaneously. These problems and others, smaller and bigger ones, end up in a family Christmas dinner like one you've (hopefully) never experienced before.

I was a bit perplexed at the beginning of the film. Not only didn't I get hold on any of the characters, but the whole film looked a bit "amateurish" and possibly more like a documentary. Still as the film went on in the same mode I got to understand the genius of it. By luring us - the audience - to viewing the film as an amateur documentary it captures us in the realness of the film; this could have been "my" family. By doing this the culmination of the film gets closer to us and buggers us all the more.

As a Dogme film it is natural to compare it to other Dogme films, both in it's way of filming and storytelling. It is without doubt a close cousin of the Danish Dogme "Festen", and if you've seen either you are guaranteed to at least enjoy the other as well. I would also like to compare it a bit with the first "Blair witch project" film. Although far from being the same genre of film I think this comparison may explain the "amateurishness" I was speaking about.

As a final comment I would strongly recommend this film! And do not turn it off if you're, like I was, a bit perplexed after the first half-hour or so because you have to watch the whole film to really enjoy it.