Opening 11 Feb 2010
Directed by:
Joachim Rønning
Writing credits:
Thomas Nordseth-Tiller
Principal actors:
Aksel Hennie, Agnes Kittelsen, Nicolai Cleve Broch, Ken Duken, Christian Rubeck
Max Manus is Norway’s premier resistance fighter during WWII and a hero. Born Johan Magnussen, he changed his name after living abroad several years. Max Manus, directed by Espen Sandberg and Joachim Ronning, is the biggest budgeted Norwegian film to date with a cast of over 1800 people! It is well done, truly exciting, and according to Max’s surviving wife, true to fact.
The film starts in March 1940 and goes through 1945; it follows Max (Aksel Hennie) through Nazi-occupied Oslo, on trips to Sweden (where he met his future wife, Tikken – played by Agnes Kittelsen – who worked at the British Consulate in Stockholm as a liaison for the Norwegian saboteurs) and to Scotland, where he fled after escaping from the Nazis, received military training and first met the deposed Norwegian King. Max formed his resistance group with his school friends to combat the Nazi occupation. His specialty was downing docked enemy ships with limpet mines (whiech magnetically attach to targets under water), most notably the SS Donau in 1944 and the SS Monte Rosa in 1945. Although famed for being spectacularly fearless, evading even Oslo’s Gestapo chief (Ken Duken) who was under orders to capture him, Max appears increasingly tormented by the deaths of his friends as they are slowly picked off by the Nazis; he drinks heavily. Luckily the war is over before his doubts interfere with his performance. Highest rating!! (Nancy Tilitz)
