Salmer Fra Kjøkkenet

Norway

Synopsis

A fable of friendship, selfrealisation and modernity. The timeless desire of the human heart to escape classification observed with humour.

During the post-war period, experts of house and home found out that simply by organizing the kitchen's work stations properly, based on the assembly-line layout of factories, the financial benefits for a household could be enormous. Or, as a Swedish ad for the new ideal kitchen put it: Instead of a housewife having to walk the equivalent of Sweden-Congo during a year of cooking, she now only needed to walk to northern Italy in order to get food on the table.

After thoroughly mapping the Swedish housewife's behavior in the kitchen, scientists at the Home Research Institute in Sweden feel ready to venture beyond their own geographic and gender-based limitations. In the early '50s they send 18 observers to the rural district of Landstad, Norway, with its surplus of bachelors, to study the kitchen routines of single men.

In order to be on 24-hour call, the observers will live in egg-shaped campers outside each subject's house. From high, custom-made observation chairs strategically placed in each kitchen, few activities will escape this new science. The observers must be allowed to come and go as they please, and under no circumstances must they be spoken to or included in kitchen activities ...

Director's Biography

Bent Hamer was born in Sandefjord, Norway in 1956. Educated in Film Theory and Literature at Stockholm's Universitet, and attended Stocholms Filmskola. Owner of the film production company BulBul Film. His filmography contains the feature films EGGS (1995) and WATER EASY REACH (1998) as well as short films and documentaries.
 | 

Cast & Crew

Directed by: Bent Hamer

Written by: Jörgen Bergmark, Bent Hamer

Produced by: Bent Hamer

Cinematography: Philip Øgaard

Editing: Pål Gengenbach

Production Design: Billy Johansson

Costume Design: Karen Fabritius Gram

Make-Up & Hair: Eva Rygh

Original Score: Hans Mathisen

Cast: Joachim Calmeyer (Isak), Tomas Norström (Folke)

Nominations and Awards

  • People's Choice Award 2003
  • Feature Film Selection 2003