MovieChat Forums > Insomnia (1998) Discussion > Sweden/Norway connection

Sweden/Norway connection

posted 20 years ago by repete66211
41 replies | jump to latest

I just finished watching this film. Can some of my Northern European friends help me out on this one? I understand that the Stellan Skarsgård character is Swedish but that the story is set in Norway, correct? So why is a Swedish cop working in Norway? I understand that he is speaking Swedish in some parts of the film and that some of the people don't understand him when he does so. Although they are both beautiful languages to listen to, I was unable to tell when he was speaking Swedish and when he was speaking Norwegian. When was he speaking Swedish and when was he speaking Norwegian? The subtitles didn't help much with this. I assume that since the film makers went through the trouble of making this a point that there must be some meaning behind it. Is there any signifigance in the different languages being used, other than to underscore the fact that he's a foreigner? Any help at all would be much appreciated and make me better able to understand and appreciate a culture other than my own.

[–] istraume 20 years ago

He is from sweden but he is working as a Norwegian cop and living in Norway. Many Swedish people are working in Norway because of better payment. Norwegians have almost no problem understanding the swedish language.

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[–] Gloede_The_Saint 17 years ago

That's so true. We also got two different main languages Bokmål (the way it's writen) and Nynorsk (new norwegian), about 14% uses the latter. We also got samish (not sure how it's spelled).

Somebody here has been drinking and I'm sad to say it ain't me - Allan Francis Doyle

[–] martine_leknes 20 years ago

The fact that Stellan Skarsgård is Swedish, doesn't play any matter in this movie.. Sweden an Norway lies next to eachother, and many Norwegians lives in Sweden, and the same with the swedish.. =) I hope you liked the movie! I think its great.. there are many good Norwegians movies now actually.. feel free to ask me for suggestions! =) PS: He speaks Swedish throughout the movie!

[–] repete66211 20 years ago

Thanks for the response. I think Stellan is an outstanding actor and it pleases me to see a non-English-speaking actor attain success not just in his home market, but in the Hollywood system as well. Are there any great Scandanavian movies that I should be seeing?

[–] martine_leknes 20 years ago

You're welcome =) Jeah, he is a wonderful actor! Hmm, there are alot of good Norwegian (also scandinavian) movies, but I don't know if all of them are to find in the US.. Villmark - haunted woods (in English I think) is also a very cool movie, but it is a thriller/horror! If you search for it here on imbd.com, you'll find some results =) And there's another one as well, Only Bea1 Its a very funny movie about youths and sex. Elling is another movie, that was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign movie.. =) Buddy and United are also very good! Kopps, is a Swedish movie, a comedy! It is hilarious! What about you? Do you have any movies to recommend? I like the drama/war/action kind of movies, such as; Schindler's List, Green mile, Gladiator, U-571, The patriot, Amistad.. Yeah! =) Luuuv

[–] rms6859 19 years ago

I,ve always been told that theres very little difference at all between Swedish, Norweigen and Danish (Icelandic i dont know anything about).

I been told its only Finnish thats considerably different. So to put it in a nutshell if there were 3 men talking to eachother in their own native languages, one man norweigen, one man swedish and the other danish, they would all be able to understand eachother with little difficulty?.

And i agree, i think Scandanavian accents sound very nice. Listen to the speaking dialouge at the beggining of the Candlemass song "Under the oak", and the song "The Prophesy". But there i think its probably a slightly americanised swedish accent?.

[–] onosendai55555 20 years ago

since you asked for recommendations: one scandinavian movie that really impressed me last year was the fundamentally weird and surrealistic norwegian movie "svidd neger" (no racist content), also try "lyckantropen" (=werewolf). lest we forget: *beep* amal" by lucas moodyson.
cheers

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[–] repete66211 18 years ago

I have had the Pusher in my Netflix queue for months now. The rating on that site is not that great, but I've heard enough from word of mouth that I'm going to stick with it. Thanks for the reinforcement.

[–] runesand 20 years ago

> The fact that Stellan Skarsgård is Swedish, doesn't play any matter in this movie..

Actually, it does plays a role. He is playing a cop that used to work in Sweden, but now works in Norway. In Sweden the police carry guns, in Norway they don't.

*** SPOILERS BELOW! ***

Being the nervous type, Engström (Skarsgård) carries his old Swedish (Sig-Sauer P225) police gun with him, even if he is not allowed to do this in Norway.

So when he accidentally kills his partner with his illegal handgun he has made a major mistake. In the US this would probably be "just one of those things that happens on the job" and he would be back in service after a short investigation. This is the reason the American remake has an uneccessary complex backstory explaining why Pacino's character would be in trouble for killing his partner.

[–] Alogusz 20 years ago

> Engström (Skarsgård) carries his old Swedish (Sig-Sauer P225) police gun with him, even if he is not allowed to do this in Norway.

He carried a Beretta 92f, which I thought was a strange choice. The Swedish police currently use Glock 9mm pistols.

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/5640/archive/insomnia.jpg

And I think the part where the punk kid said he didn't understand Swedish, maybe that was because the cop was speaking w/ a Swedish accent, and he was trying to insult him.

[–] Christoffer_Glans 20 years ago

He speaks Swedish all the time...
The thing is that our languages are similair to each other, so we can understand ech other, without speaking in another language.

[–] bjrkenmond 20 years ago

And that's why it adds another little aspect that he's continouosly speaking Swedish: The Norseman do understand him, but several times people state, they didn't get him; for example the school-girl Fröya. It's not essential or even important for the plot but it adds to the atmosphere that Stella Skarsgards character doesn't really feel at home there...

[–] DignanSWE 19 years ago

Everything is better in Norway than it is in Sweden...

[–] grigi27 19 years ago

"Everything is better in Norway than it is in Sweden..."
Dom har ju inte Zlatan ditt fån =)

[–] DignanSWE 19 years ago

Zlatan är en fjant!

[–] joellindgren 19 years ago

I think nothing is better in Norway, with the exception of them being outside of the EU/NATO and everything, but things would be the opposite of Sweden had the oil instead. I find Norway to be extremely boring, small and with terrible weather. Why do you think pretty much all Norwegians spend all of the free time during their summers in Sweden?

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[–] Stibbert 19 years ago

Norway is not member of EU , but we are member of NATO. In fact NATO has one of it's bigger headquaters here.

Another good Norwegian movie is Orions Belte (Orions belt). It's from 1985 so it might be hard to find in the US, though.

[–] istraume 19 years ago

Norway IS a member of NATO! Sweden is NOT!!! The weather is almost the same in Sweden and Norway! In Norway you can have bad weather in the south and very good weather in the North and so on! Every people with some iq in his or her head know this!

[–] AngryAfghan 19 years ago

another question about Norway-Sweden, I was wondering how easy it is for swedes to live and work in norway (and vice versa) because norway is not part of the EU, is there still an agreement between the two nations?

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[–] Bitter_Almonds 19 years ago

Everything is more expensive in Norway than it is in Sveeeden... but not necessarily better. For me buck, I'd rather go to Portugal and Spain, though I'm shaky like a chihuahua in 65F (18C) weather

Do The Mussolini! Headkick!

[–] steinarh 19 years ago

Swedish professionals working in Norway are rather common. That is, it is/has been very common for dentists and doctors. It has not been very common for policemen, though I guess a cop could easily get a job in the other country. Professions like engineers, construction workers and miners has for centuries crossed the border for work. The education systems are compatible, and all nordic citicens can freely work in any nordic country.

This film is set in northern Norway where this has been a especially hot issue. In the '70 and '80, there were a huge undercapacity in the education of some professions in Norway, coupled with a strong economic growth, where norwegian salaries generally passed their swedish counterparts. Also whild demand increased, some measures of privatisation/liberalisation made it more easy for espesially dentits/doctors to choose where to work (and live). Many chose to work in the larger cities in southern Norway, close where the had had their education. The process of establishing more education, and also outside Oslo, only started after the problem was apparent. The result was an extreme undercapacity in rural societies in northern Norway. The mid/short term solution was a large-scale import of unemployed dentists and doctors from Sweden and Denmark to northern Norway. This continues today.

While uncommon, there has been some examples of persons swithing country if they are in danger of beeing declared unfit for their profession. This may be a source of distrust.

The scandinavian languages are similar, but it takes a little bit of training understand everything. I remember myself as a child not beeing able to understand a Danish dentist and therefore beeing very afraid. In northern Norway there is less exposure to spoken Swedish/Danish from TV/Radio than in southeastern Norway.

[–] gevorkian 19 years ago

Perhaps I can clearify even further. Swedish, danish and norweigan are RELATED, however danish is closer to dutch and german rather than swedish. Sweden and Norway has always been closer (in all ways, not just language) So in other words.. Stellan Skarsgård NEVER speaks norwegian in the film, because people in Norway understands him if he speaks swedish.

Let's say for an example, that the film was a collaboration between denmark and sweden, THEN you would be talking serious difficulties for the actors to understand each other, and if that was the case, Mr. Skarsgård would need to learn danish because it's simply to weird for a common swede to understand.

[–] grimaldi5 19 years ago

I loved this movie and was glad to see Stellan get a lead role that he seems to get passed over for in America. Another quirky film that IFC sometimes plays is Bloody Angels, although the title in its native language is 1732 Hotten.
Its about a "Big City" policeman who comes to a rural backwater to solve a murder of one of two brothers who may or may not have raped and killed a mentally impaired girl. The town views him with distrust and suspicion to the point that you begin to wonder if the town wants the murder solved at all.
The closest American comparison would be a New York detective travelling to a mountainous town in Kentucky to solve a murder.
That and Insomnia both have a high speed Cop who swoops in to solve a crime locals seems inept at resolving.....thats what stands out for me....these movies leave me with the impression that cops from Sweden are often called in to clean up crimes in Norway and while it may be a stupid question....Is that a normal occurance?

[–] Renaldo Matlin 19 years ago

steinarh wrote:

"This film is set in northern Norway where this has been a especially hot issue. In the '70 and '80, there were a huge undercapacity in the education of some professions in Norway,"

Well this has nothing to do with Stellan Skarsgård's occupation, as his character works in KRIPOS which is the Norwegian criminal police (much like "homicide" in the US), and their headquarter is in Oslo. So being a KRIPOS-detective has nothing to do with professions in Northern Norway. When there is a murder case, KRIPOS detectives fly in from Oslo, set up temporary headquarters and cooperate with the local police.

[–] cassrock 19 years ago

Another good Norwegian film is Junkmail by the same director as Naboer, a very dark romantic comedy for want of a better description. Also Hawaii, Oslo which is a little Altman, PT Anderson style, interconnecting characters etc. As for the language thing, Danish and Norwegian are very similar as a written language, but Swedish and Norwegian are closer spoken. I still haven't seen the original Insomnia, which as I'm living in Norway seems lazy.

[–] jepe2503 18 years ago

(1) Danish and Norwegian are closer in written form.
(2) Norwegian and Swedish are closer in spoken form.
(3) Swedish and Danish are closer in the historical sense.

(1) is due to the fact that Norway was a Danish controled province for almost 500 years.
(2) is due to the fact that the scandinavian dialect spoken in Denmark had a strong change and modernization in pronunciation in the late Medieval age. These southern novations never spread to the north. (The only such change which successfully spread northwards was the monophthongization of the old diphthongs 'ei', 'au' and 'øy' into 'e', 'ø' and 'ø' respectively. This mainly affected only southern and central Swedish, though.)
(3) is due to the fact that Old Norse had two main dialects: Old WEST Norse (spoken in Norway, Iceland, Greenland, northern Scotland etc) and Old EAST Norse (spoken in Sweden, Denmark, western Finland, parts of Russia and Balticum, eastern England etc).

[–] angemo 18 years ago

hear, hear, jepe2503 is speaking the truth

[–] mathew5000 18 years ago

When the film played cinematically in Norway, did the Swedish dialogue get subtitled? (And when it played in Sweden was the Norwegian dialogue subtitled?)

Froya tells Engström that when he spoke to her high-school class, nobody else understood him.

But what about Engstöm's friend, Erik Vik? Was he Swedish or Norwegian? I couldn't figure that out. When they first arrive in Tromso and are driving to the hotel, the implication is that Vik had been there before.

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[–] darkeval 18 years ago

However there are many different dialects in Norway, and most are very different from the written Norwegian languages. Here's some examples, all with different pronounciations:

Jej elsker dej (Oslo, East Norway)
E elske dæ (Far South Norway)
Eg elske deg (Stavanger, Bergen, West Norway)
Æ ælsk dæ (Trøndelag, Middle Norway)
Æ ælske dæ (North Norway)

Now "Trøndelag" and "North Norway" seems similar, but they're actually very different and some dialects in Trøndelag can be hard to understand for any Norwegian. Let's look at the sentance "I don't love you, you see":

Æ ælsk dæ itj, sjø (Trøndelag)
Æ ælske dæ ikke, ser du (North Norway)

[–] jepe2503 17 years ago

And the differences in Sweden are of the same magnitude.

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