Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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Silje Storstein | ... | Sofie Amundsen / Hilde Møller Knag |
Tomas von Brömssen | ... | Alberto Knox | |
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Andrine Sæther | ... | Sofie's mother |
Bjørn Floberg | ... | Major Albert Knag | |
Hans Alfredson | ... | Socrates (as Hasse Alfredson) | |
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Nils Vogt | ... | Lærer Jacobsen |
Minken Fosheim | ... | Hildes mor | |
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Edda Trandum Grjotheim | ... | Jorunn |
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Arne Haakonaasen Dahl | ... | Georg / Mischa / Giovanni (as Arne Haakenaasen Dahl) |
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Sullivan Lloyd Nordrum | ... | Jørgen |
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Kjersti Holmen | ... | Fru Johnsen |
Ingar Helge Gimle | ... | Herr Johnsen | |
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Giorgos Floros | ... | Meletos (as Giorgios Floros) |
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Sven Henriksen | ... | Platon |
Mark Tandy | ... | William Shakespeare |
Sofie is an ordinary Norwegian girl. One day she recieves a video tape on which a certain Alberto Knox talks directly to her from ancient Greece. They then start to meet at different occasions and throughout the film, Alberto takes Sofie on an odyssey of the history of philosophy, from ancient Greece, over the Roman empire, the Middle ages, the renaissance, the enlightenment, the big revolutions and up to today. Throughout this journey, they start to realise that they are only fictions of a story writer's imagination and start conceiving a plan for escaping into reality. Written by Anders E Lundin
O.K. No one really expected a film to portray in a few hours what Gaarder painstakingly created in his bestselling novel, but this film doesn't even come close to capturing the essence of Sofie's philosophical journey through adolescence.
The amateurish efforts of some of the cast distracts one's attention from the extremely simplified storyline. Will probably appeal to kids but we adults should stick to the book. Might I suggest a BBC television production? Perhaps a ten part series with professional actors and more subtlety. A big budget is, (contrary to popular convention), not as necessary as it may seem for the modern film-maker. Despite being the "biggest" and "most expensive" Norwegian film ever made, "Sofies Verden", is, unfortunately, far from being the best.