Varg Veum - Bitre blomster (2007)

Director:

Ulrik Imtiaz Rolfsen

Writers:

Thomas Moldestad (screenplay)
Gunnar Staalesen (novel)

Release Date:

28 September 2007 (Norway)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

Cast

Trond Espen Seim	...	Varg Veum
Bjørn Floberg	...	Hamre
Kathrine Fagerland	...	Anna Keilhaug
Endre Hellestveit	...	Isachsen
Anders Dale	...	Odin Schrøder-Olsen
Øyvind Gran	...	Trygve Schrøder-Olsen
Per Jansen	...	Harald Schrøder-Olsen
Trine Wiggen	...	Vibeke Farang
Håvard Bakke	...	Bård Farang
Nicholas Hope	...	Warren Donaldson
Ove Andreassen	...	Monrad
Belinda Braza	...	Kristin
Glenn Andre Kaada	...	Kim
Julie Fløysand	...	Camilla Farang
Tor Andre Rundhaug	...	Henrik Farang

Also Known As:

Bitter Flowers (USA) (literal English title)
Varg Veum - Bittra blomster (Sweden)
Wolf - Das vermisste Mädchen, Der (Germany) (TV title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Norway | Sweden | Germany

Language:

Norwegian

Color:

Color

Certification:

Norway:11

Filming Locations:

Bergen, Hordaland, Norway

Company:

Film Fund FUZZ

Goofs:

Errors in geography: When Varg Veum is driving on the bridge, he approaches the bridge from an island driving towards the mainland. He should be approaching from the mainland going towards the island.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Varg Veum - Kvinnen i kjøleskapet (2008)

Beautiful scenery, nice music and good acting by Trond Espen Seim

This is the first in what is planned to be a series of adaptations of Gunnar Staalesen's novels about the private detective, Varg Veum, and I must say that I was very pleased with the result.

The plot goes like this: The daughter of a female politician disappears at the same time as the politician's lover also goes underground, and she hires Varg Veum to try to find them. When Varg Veum starts tracking down the various clues, they all point towards the industrial plant the lover works at.

Even though the story in the book takes place in the early 1990s, the adaptation has moved the story to present-day. What pleased me most with the movie, was the beautiful scenery of Bergen together with a very nice musical score. The opening scene first shows Bergen viewed from mount Fløyen, and afterwards we get to see the main bus terminal and Bryggen. People from Bergen watching this movie will be especially pleased with this.

Trond Espen Seim fit the role as Varg Veum perfectly. Some people have criticized the choice of Seim in the lead role because he doesn't speak the Bergen dialect. I was also initially skeptical to this choice, but after seeing the film, I now understand how well he fits into this role. Bjørn Floberg was also great in the role as the chief inspector, and the scenes with him and Trond Espen Seim were great, especially the scene where they meet on the roof of the main bus terminal in the rain. This can't be considered as anything less than a classic scene that must be remembered in Norwegian movie history.

What I didn't like with this film, were most of the scenes with the bad guys. First of all, it was too obvious that they were bad guys. The way they were dressed up and the choice of music for these scenes made it look more like a parody than an actual murder mystery. These scenes were way overdone and destroyed much of the suspense that was built up beforehand.

But all in all, this was a beautiful movie and a beautiful portrayal of Bergen.