Crimes of the future: A film about a film about a book about a city, 2019

"Crimes of the Future" takes as its point of departure the Danish/Swedish/Norwegian co-produced film adaptation of Knut Hamsun’s novel "Hunger". [New in October 2019]
ParticipantsJavier Izquierdo

Information

Filmmaker Javier Izquierdo presents a new essay film produced by osloBIENNALEN, Crimes of the Future, a film about a film about a book about a city (2019). The film takes as its point of departure the Danish/Swedish/Norwegian co-produced film adaptation of the Norwegian modernist novel Hunger by Knut Hamsun, published in 1890.

Through conversations with an array of Norwegian writers, filmmakers, psychiatrists, artists and more, Izquierdo investigates the impact of both the film and novel on generations of Norwegian culture and artistic practice, while exploring how it could speak about what it means to be an artist today.

This summer the film was streamed on a streaming page on our website from June 15th to 15th July 2020.

Crimes of the Future, a film about a film about a book about a city (2019)

What is the crime of the future? Javier Izquierdo has made a number of films about authorship and books. For osloBIENNALEN he has made another about the filming of Knut Hamsun’s novel Hunger. The book from 1890 has a powerful first-person narrative voice, a starving author who drives the internal monologue of the story forward. In the 1966 Danish/Swedish/Norwegian film version, Henning Carlsen used the modernist film idiom of the time – stark contrasts of light and darkness, still images, unexpected dramaturgy – to transform the monologue into action.

Film still. Photography by Tomás Astudillo.

Izquierdo’s film presents a succession of Norwegian writers, film people and others to discuss the impact of the book and the film on Norwegian art and culture. The film also visits historical places which today have disappeared or are almost unrecognizable. Much of Carlsen’s film was shot at Vaterland in Oslo. In 1966, the demolition of this neighbourhood was still at the planning stage and Vaterland was still intact. Izquierdo has made a film about a film about a book about a city that has now partly been torn down and rebuilt.

Izquierdo’s film was part of the week-long film programme and seminar, “Where Memories Are Made”organised in collaboration with Kunstnernes Hus and Kunstnernes Hus Kino in October 2019.

TRAILER Crimes of the Future.

Director: Javier Izquierdo
Producer: Anna Katharina Haukeland / osloBIENNALEN
Production Manager: Åshild Samseth / osloBIENNALEN
Researcher: Martin Berner Mathiesen / osloBIENNALEN 
Coordinator: Håkon Lillegraven / osloBIENNALEN 
Cinematographer: Tomás Astudillo
Camera assistants: Tora Turøy, Birgitte Aarebrodt
Sound: Fridtjof Wesseltoft
Featured cast: Sveinung Wålengen, Marius Grønning, Anja Breien, Roskva Koritzinsky, Martin Ernstsen, Tommy Lørdahl, Finn Skårderud, Hamza Kader

Eivind Røssaak in conversation with Javier Izquierdo at Kunstnernes Hus October 19th 2019. Foto: Peder Blümlein / Visual Curry


Former films by Javier Izquierdo, shown during the film program, 2019

As part of the film programme "Where memories are made" at Kunstnernes Hus in Oktober 2019, two former movies by Javier Izquierdo was also screened:

Panamá (2019)
was shown Wednesday 23 October 6 PM, 2019

Director: : Javier Izquierdo
Screenplay : Javier Izquierdo, Jorge Izquierdo
Producer : Tomás Astudillo (Ostinato Cine)
Casts: Jorge Fegan, Diego Coral, María Josefina Viteri
Festivales: International premiere in Trieste Latin American Film Festival (November 2019)

Synopsis
A long conversation between two friends from the past who meet coincidentally in a foreign city to find out how much they have changed and all that they share. One is a banker and the other a guerrilla member and both are trapped in their activities. Panamá City in the eighties, both a tax haven and a place of political asylum, is the backdrop of this story about friendship and false identities that takes place during 24 hours.

A secret in the box (2016)
Was shown on 23 October 7.30 PM, 2019

Director: Javier Izquierdo
Screenplay: Javier Izquierdo, Jorge Izquierdo
Producer: Isabella Parra (Caleidoscopio Cine), Javier Izquierdo (Ostinato Cine)
Cast: Alfredo Espinosa, Angel Gavilánez, Yolanda Acosta, Antonio Ordoñez, José Ignacio Donoso, Christoph Baumann, Amaia Merino, Randi Krarup
Festivals: Best Latin American director and FIPRESCI Prize in BAFICI 2017

Synopsis
A secret in the box explores the life and works of Marcelo Chiriboga (1933-1990), Ecuadorian writer internationally known as member of the “Latin American Boom” generation, but who remains unknown in his country until this day. Through multiple voices and varied archival footage, the film reconstructs the puzzle of Chiriboga´s existence, a mix of reality and fiction.

Artist talk

Approx 8.45 PM- After the screening of A secret in the box (2016), there will be an Artist Talk between Trond Lundemo and Javier Izquierdo. The talk will be about both films by Javier Izquierdo shown that evening.

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