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Insomnia (1997 film)
Encyclopedia
Insomnia is a 1997 Norwegian thriller film about a police detective investigating a murder in a town located above the Arctic Circle
. The investigation goes horribly wrong when he mistakenly shoots his partner and subsequently attempts to cover up his bungle. The title of the film refers to his inability to sleep, the result of both his guilt and the relentless glare of the midnight sun
. Insomnia was the film debut of director Erik Skjoldbjærg
. The screenplay was written by Nikolaj Frobenius
and Skjoldbjærg, and the soundtrack by Geir Jenssen (alias Biosphere
).
, far up in the Norwegian Arctic, Kripos
police officers Jonas Engström (Stellan Skarsgård
) and Erik Vik (Sverre Anker Ousdal
) are called in to investigate. Engström is a police inspector formerly with the Swedish Police Service
who moved to Norway after being caught having sex with the main witness in one of his cases. Vik is nearing retirement age, and his memory is ailing.
Engström devises a plan to lure the murderer back to the scene of the crime, but the stakeout is blown and the murder suspect flees into the fog. Events take a turn for the worse when the fugitive shoots one of the pursuing police officers, who are unarmed per Norwegian law. Unbeknownst to his colleagues, however, Engström carries a gun from his days in the Swedish police. When he shoots at a shadow in the fog, he learns that he has killed Vik, who had mistakenly run right instead of left as ordered.
Engström initially tells the truth about the shooting, but realizes that everyone assumes that the fugitive shot Vik. He decides to conceal his culpability. When one of Engström's colleagues, Hilde Hagen (Gisken Armand
), is assigned to investigate Vik's death, he becomes worried about ballistic fingerprinting
and tampers with evidence to support his story. Haunted by guilt and unable to sleep with the midnight sun
of the Arctic, Engström becomes increasingly unhinged and starts hallucinating about Vik. Things become even worse when he learns that Tanja's murderer saw him shoot Vik.
Engström learns from one of Tanja's friends that she has been seeing Jon Holt (Bjørn Floberg
), a crime novelist. He correctly deduces that Holt killed Tanja, but Holt blackmails Engström with his knowledge of the Vik shooting. The two meet and decide to frame Tanja's boyfriend Eilert for her murder, with Engström later planting Holt's gun under Eilert's bed. However, Hagen is not convinced of Eilert's involvement, and when new evidence emerges, Engström knows that it's only a matter of time before Holt is arrested.
Engström tracks down Holt in the ruins at a waterfront and tries to talk with him. Holt suspects that Engström has come to kill him and holds him at gunpoint. He explains how he killed Tanja in a fit of rage when she dismissed his sexual advances. Holt tries to flee across a pier, but the rotten floorboards give way and cause him to fall into the water below. He hits his head and drowns, while Engström looks on. When he rummages through Holt's nearby house, Engström finds Tanja's dress, which Holt removed before dumping the body. With Holt dead, and having found definitive proof that he was the murderer, the case is closed.
Just before he leaves town, Engström is visited by Hagen, who shows him a cartridge case
found at the site where Vik was shot. She notes that it is a Norma
case, which Engström confirms is a brand used by the Swedish police. Engström expects Hagen to arrest him, but she instead lets him off the hook and she leaves the cartridge case.
over recent and ongoing misdeeds, and partly due to the never-ending sunlight, which serves as an outward representation of that guilt. The film has been described as turning film noir
conventions on their heads by using, in place of shadows and darkness, relentless sunshine and ubiquitous bright white fog to convey guilt and disorientation. The film noir theme is emphasized, as the film follows many of the other conventions from this genre. For instance, the lone detective who doesn't follow rules, but develops a personal interest in the case and establishes connections with the villain.
Engström strives to maintain an image of professionalism and of being in control. In actuality, he repeatedly loses control and succumbs to his own sexual desires. His caressing of Tanja's body at her autopsy could be described as either fatherly or carnal, but his encounters with Tanja's friend Frøya, and Ane, the receptionist, are all sexual in nature. His decision to stay and watch Eilert have sex with his new girlfriend defines him as the sexually frustrated voyeur
. This characteristic, along with the accidental killing of a friend, aligns him with Holt.
Engström has moved from Sweden
to Norway
to escape the past, but throughout the film he is unable to put his Swedish nationality behind him: He doesn't speak Norwegian properly, at one point addressing an entire classroom in a Swedish dialect they do not understand. As a former Swedish police officer, Engström is accustomed to wearing a firearm, and brings one with him in violation of Norwegian police procedure.
A common misconception outside Scandinavia (possibly due to translation problems) is that Engström is a Swedish police officer aiding Norwegian police, in a cross-border collaboration. This is wrong; Engström is a Swede employed in the Norwegian police
. It is quite common for Swedes to move to neighbouring Norway to find work and vice versa.
. The film, featuring Al Pacino
, Robin Williams
, and Hilary Swank
, was released in 2002.
Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....
. The investigation goes horribly wrong when he mistakenly shoots his partner and subsequently attempts to cover up his bungle. The title of the film refers to his inability to sleep, the result of both his guilt and the relentless glare of the midnight sun
Midnight sun
The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon occurring in summer months at latitudes north and nearby to the south of the Arctic Circle, and south and nearby to the north of the Antarctic Circle where the sun remains visible at the local midnight. Given fair weather, the sun is visible for a continuous...
. Insomnia was the film debut of director Erik Skjoldbjærg
Erik Skjoldbjærg
Erik Skjoldbjærg is a Norwegian director and writer best known for co-writing and directing the film Insomnia and directing Prozac Nation-External links:...
. The screenplay was written by Nikolaj Frobenius
Nikolaj Frobenius
Nikolaj Frobenius is a Norwegian novelist and screen writer.Frobenius was born in Oslo, but grew up at Rykkinn. He studied film writing and research at LCP, London. He has written several books and screenplays, including the screenplay for the classic nordic film thriller Insomnia, which was...
and Skjoldbjærg, and the soundtrack by Geir Jenssen (alias Biosphere
Biosphere (musician)
Biosphere is the main recording name of Geir Jenssen , a Norwegian musician who has released a notable catalogue of ambient electronic music. He is well known for his "ambient techno" and "arctic ambient" styles, his use of music loops, and peculiar samples from sci-fi sources. His track "Novelty...
).
Plot
When 17-year-old Tanja is found murdered in the city of TromsøTromsø
Tromsø is a city and municipality in Troms county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø.Tromsø city is the ninth largest urban area in Norway by population, and the seventh largest city in Norway by population...
, far up in the Norwegian Arctic, Kripos
Kripos
Den nasjonale enhet for bekjempelse av organisert og annen alvorlig kriminalitet is a Norwegian special police division under the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police....
police officers Jonas Engström (Stellan Skarsgård
Stellan Skarsgård
Stellan John Skarsgård is a Swedish actor, known internationally for his film roles in Angels & Demons, Breaking the Waves, The Hunt for Red October, Ronin, Good Will Hunting, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist,...
) and Erik Vik (Sverre Anker Ousdal
Sverre Anker Ousdal
Sverre Anker Ousdal is a Norwegian actor born in Flekkefjord, Norway.-Biography:Ousdal made his debut in 1965 at Den Nationale Scene in Bergen...
) are called in to investigate. Engström is a police inspector formerly with the Swedish Police Service
Swedish Police Service
The Swedish Police Service is a collection of Government agencies concerned with police matters in Sweden. The Swedish Police Service consists of 28,500 employees of which 39 per cent are women. The staff consists of 20,000 police officers of which 25 per cent are women and 8,500 civilian staff of...
who moved to Norway after being caught having sex with the main witness in one of his cases. Vik is nearing retirement age, and his memory is ailing.
Engström devises a plan to lure the murderer back to the scene of the crime, but the stakeout is blown and the murder suspect flees into the fog. Events take a turn for the worse when the fugitive shoots one of the pursuing police officers, who are unarmed per Norwegian law. Unbeknownst to his colleagues, however, Engström carries a gun from his days in the Swedish police. When he shoots at a shadow in the fog, he learns that he has killed Vik, who had mistakenly run right instead of left as ordered.
Engström initially tells the truth about the shooting, but realizes that everyone assumes that the fugitive shot Vik. He decides to conceal his culpability. When one of Engström's colleagues, Hilde Hagen (Gisken Armand
Gisken Armand
Gisken Armand Lillo-Stenberg is a Norwegian actress. She is the daughter of actor Eilif Armand, and sister of Merete Armand and Frøydis Armand, both actresses. She debued on stage at the age of fourteen, at Den Nationale Scene, and has been working at Nationaltheatret since 1988...
), is assigned to investigate Vik's death, he becomes worried about ballistic fingerprinting
Ballistic fingerprinting
Ballistic fingerprinting refers to a set of forensic techniques that rely on marks that firearms leave on bullets to match a bullet to the gun it was fired with...
and tampers with evidence to support his story. Haunted by guilt and unable to sleep with the midnight sun
Midnight sun
The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon occurring in summer months at latitudes north and nearby to the south of the Arctic Circle, and south and nearby to the north of the Antarctic Circle where the sun remains visible at the local midnight. Given fair weather, the sun is visible for a continuous...
of the Arctic, Engström becomes increasingly unhinged and starts hallucinating about Vik. Things become even worse when he learns that Tanja's murderer saw him shoot Vik.
Engström learns from one of Tanja's friends that she has been seeing Jon Holt (Bjørn Floberg
Bjørn Floberg
Bjørn Floberg is a Norwegian actor of film, television, and theatre. He is particularly noted for playing unsympathetic authority figures, but he has also had success playing other types of roles.- Theatre :...
), a crime novelist. He correctly deduces that Holt killed Tanja, but Holt blackmails Engström with his knowledge of the Vik shooting. The two meet and decide to frame Tanja's boyfriend Eilert for her murder, with Engström later planting Holt's gun under Eilert's bed. However, Hagen is not convinced of Eilert's involvement, and when new evidence emerges, Engström knows that it's only a matter of time before Holt is arrested.
Engström tracks down Holt in the ruins at a waterfront and tries to talk with him. Holt suspects that Engström has come to kill him and holds him at gunpoint. He explains how he killed Tanja in a fit of rage when she dismissed his sexual advances. Holt tries to flee across a pier, but the rotten floorboards give way and cause him to fall into the water below. He hits his head and drowns, while Engström looks on. When he rummages through Holt's nearby house, Engström finds Tanja's dress, which Holt removed before dumping the body. With Holt dead, and having found definitive proof that he was the murderer, the case is closed.
Just before he leaves town, Engström is visited by Hagen, who shows him a cartridge case
Cartridge (firearms)
A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim . Electrically...
found at the site where Vik was shot. She notes that it is a Norma
Norma (company)
Norma Precision is a Swedish manufacturer of ammunition located in Åmotfors, in the province of Värmland, just 20 km of the Norwegian border. It is commonly referred to as simply Norma.- History :...
case, which Engström confirms is a brand used by the Swedish police. Engström expects Hagen to arrest him, but she instead lets him off the hook and she leaves the cartridge case.
Cast
- Stellan SkarsgårdStellan SkarsgårdStellan John Skarsgård is a Swedish actor, known internationally for his film roles in Angels & Demons, Breaking the Waves, The Hunt for Red October, Ronin, Good Will Hunting, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist,...
as Jonas Engström - Sverre Anker OusdalSverre Anker OusdalSverre Anker Ousdal is a Norwegian actor born in Flekkefjord, Norway.-Biography:Ousdal made his debut in 1965 at Den Nationale Scene in Bergen...
as Erik Vik - Bjørn FlobergBjørn FlobergBjørn Floberg is a Norwegian actor of film, television, and theatre. He is particularly noted for playing unsympathetic authority figures, but he has also had success playing other types of roles.- Theatre :...
as Jon Holt - Gisken ArmandGisken ArmandGisken Armand Lillo-Stenberg is a Norwegian actress. She is the daughter of actor Eilif Armand, and sister of Merete Armand and Frøydis Armand, both actresses. She debued on stage at the age of fourteen, at Den Nationale Scene, and has been working at Nationaltheatret since 1988...
as Hilde Hagen - Maria BonnevieMaria BonnevieAnna Maria Cecilia Bonnevie is a Norwegian-Swedish actress. She was born in Västerås, Sweden, but she grew up in Oslo, Norway. Her parents, both actors, are the Norwegian actress Jannik Bonnevie and Swedish actor Per Waldvik...
as Ane - Bjørn Moan as Eilert
- Maria Mathiesen as Tanja Lorentzen
- Marianne O. Ulrichsen as Frøya
- Kristian Figenschow as Arne Zakariassen
- Thor Michael Aamodt as Tom Engen
- Frode Rasmussen as Chief of Police
Themes
Engström is unable to sleep, partly due to relentless guiltGuilt
Guilt is the state of being responsible for the commission of an offense. It is also a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes—accurately or not—that he or she has violated a moral standard, and bears significant responsibility for that...
over recent and ongoing misdeeds, and partly due to the never-ending sunlight, which serves as an outward representation of that guilt. The film has been described as turning film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
conventions on their heads by using, in place of shadows and darkness, relentless sunshine and ubiquitous bright white fog to convey guilt and disorientation. The film noir theme is emphasized, as the film follows many of the other conventions from this genre. For instance, the lone detective who doesn't follow rules, but develops a personal interest in the case and establishes connections with the villain.
Engström strives to maintain an image of professionalism and of being in control. In actuality, he repeatedly loses control and succumbs to his own sexual desires. His caressing of Tanja's body at her autopsy could be described as either fatherly or carnal, but his encounters with Tanja's friend Frøya, and Ane, the receptionist, are all sexual in nature. His decision to stay and watch Eilert have sex with his new girlfriend defines him as the sexually frustrated voyeur
Voyeurism
In clinical psychology, voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other activity usually considered to be of a private nature....
. This characteristic, along with the accidental killing of a friend, aligns him with Holt.
Engström has moved from Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
to Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
to escape the past, but throughout the film he is unable to put his Swedish nationality behind him: He doesn't speak Norwegian properly, at one point addressing an entire classroom in a Swedish dialect they do not understand. As a former Swedish police officer, Engström is accustomed to wearing a firearm, and brings one with him in violation of Norwegian police procedure.
A common misconception outside Scandinavia (possibly due to translation problems) is that Engström is a Swedish police officer aiding Norwegian police, in a cross-border collaboration. This is wrong; Engström is a Swede employed in the Norwegian police
Norwegian Police Service
The Norwegian Police Service is the official police force in Norway which are run by the Minister of Justice and Police. The department consists of 27 regional areas and seven national special forces. The department has about 11,000 employees....
. It is quite common for Swedes to move to neighbouring Norway to find work and vice versa.
Remake
A remake of the film was directed by Christopher NolanChristopher Nolan
Christopher Jonathan James Nolan is a British-American film director, screenwriter and producer.He received serious notice after his second feature Memento , which he wrote and directed based on a story idea by his brother, Jonathan Nolan. Jonathan went to co-write later scripts with him,...
. The film, featuring Al Pacino
Al Pacino
Alfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy and Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way, though he has also appeared...
, Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
, and Hilary Swank
Hilary Swank
Hilary Ann Swank is an American actress. Swank's film career began with a small part in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and then a major part in The Next Karate Kid , as Julie Pierce, the first female protégé of sensei Mr. Miyagi...
, was released in 2002.