Guilt and sexual jealousy are the main dynamics behind Skouen's gloomy and intense tale about Oddmund, a former Resistance leader who caused the death of 12 refugees during the war.
The classic movie from 1938 is an adaptation of Oscar Braatens play. Eva Sletto plays the young factory worker Milja, and Harald Heide Steen as her unfaithful boyfriend Julius.Milja and Julius are a happy couple working at the factory, and everything is good until Petrina shows up at the arena. Julius is bewitched by the girl, who gets him to drink and steal.Milja is soon left alone with the shame - and a bastard child. The child is placed with Hønse-Lovisa while Milja is at the factory, but a doctor casts his eyes on Milja`s young. He's looking for children to adopt to rich westside people. In her desperation, Milja gives away the dearest thing she owns, for the kid to have better conditions than she manages to give him.It is Hønse-Lovisa that convinces her that the material benefits can never compensate for real love and care.
An interesting look into 1931, a year of unemployment and misery in the forests of Norway. The movie is important as both film history and social portrayal. We get insight into working conditions class differences between loggers and forest owners. Based on the events of the Julussa conflict the movie depicts early labour organization, unity and strike.
Øjvind, a smallholder's boy, is a close friend with Marit, a farmer's girl, throughout their entire childhood. As an adolescent he one day recognizes that she has become a maiden, and that he has fallen in love with her. When he sees Marit dancing with Jon Halten, a farmer's son, he gets sad, and notices that when you start loving someone, you are not cheerful any more. He senses the social distance between himself and Marit, and tries to compensate this by becoming the best pupil in the village. Øjvind wants to study at an agricultural college, and the old schoolmaster helps him to arrange this. When he some years later returns to the village as an agronomist, he and Marit resume their romance. Because of their different social status Marit's grandfather, Ola Nordistua, tries to stop the liaison. With new agricultural methods Øjvind helps his father to get better harvests. At the same time the old Ola Nordistua sees his farm going downhill as no one really cares for it.
