Munch

Some painters manage to produce a work that so captures the imagination that it has become part of humanity's collective memory. Think of the Mona Lisa, the Girl with a Pearl Earring, the Sunflowers. Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) also created such a work: The Scream. This foreman of expressionism went through many bad periods, during which his life was ruled by loneliness, fear (of losing loved ones) and despair.

In this biopic, Norwegian director Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken depicts four episodes from Munch's life: as a man in his twenties who sees a bright future ahead, in his thirties when he is disillusioned because he is rejected by the Berlin art scene, in his forties when mental problems cause him to be admitted to a psychiatric clinic, and finally in his eighties as a fiery old man who tries to keep his work out of the hands of the Nazis. Each episode is portrayed by a different actor. Munch was the opening film of last IFFR.