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Saturday, Nov 17, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

The ‘super’ Norwegian

PHOTO: K. RAMESH BABU

STUDYING YOUNG MINDS: Morten Hovland with his family at I-Max on Friday.

Meet Morten Hovland from Norway whose film ‘Supernova’ received accolades at the Children’s Film Festival. “It’s a film about a small child beginning to worry about bigger questions of life,” Morten tells T. Lalith Singh.

A graduate in television direction from Lillehammer College, Morten wrote and directed several short films for the small screen. One of his efforts that won wider appreciation happened to be the acclaimed series ‘Fjortis’.

‘Supernova’ is a short duration film that seeks to put the quest related to life in perspective. Shot on a beach with just three characters, it tellingly captures the stepping of a younger mind into the realms of life’s harsh realities. “The film was conceived from an enquiry that my son made,” he recalls. The innocent query that nagged the boy’s mind happened to be whether his father would fade out before him. “I saw my child getting worried and realised these were the same questions that I myself was confronted with at that age,” Morten says. At some point, every individual realises for himself that there are questions that he does not have an answer for. Questions in particular about life and death. And the movie has the father telling his son that one has to live and find answers for himself.

On the entertainment industry back home, Morten says about 20 feature films are produced every year in Norway and at least five of them happen to be children’s films. “Ours is a small country and the output too is small”. A producer has to apply the government for a project and is financed for the same. The short films and documentaries however, are produced in more numbers and he puts them at around 400 each year with 50 on an average being made for children.

The TV there is more based on drama series and Morten has already been associated with three of them. More of drama and a bit of action is what goes into films in Norway. “Like everywhere across the globe, our cinema is also a little influenced by Hollywood,” he says. Presently, Morten is busy with his next project which is about three girls, one of whom goes missing and how the other two go in search of her.

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