Forbannelsen – The Curse
Written and Directed by: Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken
Cast: Jan Sælid, Eva Nergård, Tarjei Sandvik Moe, Anna Filippa Hjarne
Swift shot: I love a good demonic possession story, but this was something different entirely. Set against the final days of The Great War and the Norwegianization of the Sami people, Possession is a critical takedown of the Christian expansion of the Sami territory.
I must confess when I lived in Norway I barely heard about the Sami people. I just knew that they were different than the traditional Norwegians that I hung out with all the time. Odds are, I was probably friends with a few Sami descendants and didn’t even notice the difference. But in 1918, there was clear animosity to these tribal people and their reluctance to embrace the modern. And worse, they were seen by many as heathens . . . which is somewhat droll considering these people all descended from Vikings. Ikke sant?
[Swift aside: If you’ve watched the latest Andor, the Dhani people seem to be directly inspired by the Sami]
Pastor Lauritz (Sælid) is living in a remote area of Norway with his wife and blind daughter. His son, Oskar (Moe) has just returned from the war, but something is different about him. Meanwhile, the Pastor’s wife is deathly ill, and the doctor’s best “cure” is to have her rest outside in the freezing air. Yea, it isn’t going to end well for her.
At some point, a young Sami girl, My (Nergård) wanders into their life, and Lauritz, being such a caring human being, decides to care for her as his own. But, he actually despises heathens, having spent years in Madagascar as a missionary converting people to Christianity. Despite his contempt; though, he does his best to welcome her to their home. And as his daughter, Agatha (Hjarne) is blind, he welcomes My as her guide.
Meanwhile, there is a strip-mining operation in the area that is mining ore for the war effort, and the head of the crew, Timann (Dennis Storhøi) and his henchman, Gustav (Benjamin Helstad) are working with the Pastor to build a church for the growing community. The Pastor has his heart set on a prime piece of real estate . . . you guessed it, claimed by the Sami. And to make matters worse, it is one of their sacred burial grounds. Worse than that, it is a children’s graveyard.
If Poltergeist taught us anything it is that you don’t mess with sacred ground, ever! But there wouldn’t be a movie if the Pastor was a reasonable man.
With his decision set in stone, the Pastor soon finds his family slowly torn apart as a series of strange events and impulses overtake people in his life.
That’s all the setup you are getting from me for Possession, except to say that the English title loses a lot in the translation. This is not a possession story! Forbannelsen, “The Curse,” is a much better description of the true nature of the evil that unfolds.
With an immersive, underplayed soundtrack and masterful cinematography, Possession has a mystical feel grounded in pragmatic characters and while it is paced deliberately slow, it never plods along or gets boring. There is plenty of violence, and at times it is quite shocking and always disturbing.
One thing that I wondered at the end was whether or not the spirits were even necessary to the story. Maybe that was by design, as Scandinavian house spirits are typically elusive but somehow always present. Perhaps that was the point?
If you are looking for a straight-up possession movie, this is not for you, but it is a worthy thriller with plenty of twists and terrible turns.
