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FILM SUMMARY
Profile of the great Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun (1859 - 1952), winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920.
Author of great novels deeply rooted in the Norwegian soil, Hamsun became an enthusiastic German collaborator during the second world war and even met Hitler. He thus becomes an object of hatred of his people who once adored him.
WITH THE INTERVIEWS OF
* Leif Hamsun, Knut Hamsun's grand son
* Max Von Sydow, the swedish actor
* Harald Naess, norvegian litterature professor
* Régis Boyer, french litterature professor
FILM PRESENTATION
The great Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun who lived from 1859 to 1952, was the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1920 and author of great novels rooted in the Norwegian land. Hamsun was universally acclaimed by some of the world’s greatest, from Octave Mirbeau, to Henry Miller, and enjoyed unusual renown.
Driven by a commitment to Pan-Germanic thinking during World War Two, he was an enthusiastic supporter of the German cause and acutally met Adolph Hitler. This caused him to be reviled by the Norwegian people who had once idolized him.
Leif Hamsun, grandson of Knut Hamsun, and famous Swedish actor Max von Sydow, who had played Hamsun in a film role about the novelist during World War II, attempt to show who this uncompromising man really was.
Through paintings by Norwegian painter Edward Munch, a contemporary of Hamsun’s, archive visuals of Hamsun and excerpts from movie adaptations of his novels, we learn about an enigmatic individual who was looking too far afield to see the political reality in his homeland.
KNUT HAMSUN's BOOKS
* 1889 The Spiritual Life of Modern America America
* 1890 The Hunger
* 1892 Mysteries
* 1893 Shallow Soil
* 1894 Pan
* 1898 Victoria
* 1927 Vagabonds
* 1930 AUGUST
* 1949 On Overgrown Paths