Long time before the likes of Kissinger, Begin or Arafat, Nobel Prize ceased to be synonym with sainthood. The most notorious example of Nobel Prize laureate being burdened with infamy used to be Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun (1859 - 1952). After receiving Nobel Prize for literature in early 1930s, Hamsun spent the last years of his life in jail, being sentenced for collaboration with Nazis during German occupation of Norway. Many years later Norwegians felt comfortable enough to separate Hamsun's WW2 record from his literary work and the novel Svarmere was adapted into The Telegraphist, 1993 drama directed by Erik Gustavson.
The plot of the film is set in small Norwegian town at the end of 19th Century. Protagonist is Ove Rolandsen (played by Bjørn Floberg), local telegraph operator who wants to improve his unenviable social standing by trying to discover new invention. Unfortunately, his plan to get ahead in life is always impeded by three things - lack of money, womanising and unhidden contempt for his less ambitious and more conformist neighbours. However, when he falls in love with the daughter of a local industrialist, his luck starts to change.
Those familiar to Hamsun's work would probably find The Telegraphist to be an interesting character study that embodies all of Hamsun's ideals. The protagonist, brilliantly played by Bjørn Floberg, is a rugged individualist, always at odds with a hypocritical and conformist society. Hamsun's disdain for the society, which at times turned into mysanthropy (and arguably led to his collaboration with Nazis), is here moderated with the lighter tone of the plot. Setting might be cold, but the small-town story and characters are almost Mediterranean in their temperament and colour. Some of the elements in the plot (tensions between Norwegians and Swedes) are perhaps too cryptic to those not familiar to this particular period in Scandinavian history (before those two countries became formally separated in 1905). However, for all those who want to familiarise themselves with Nordic culture, The Telegraphist is going to be quite rewarding experience.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on December 3rd 2002)
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