PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE ROYAL NORWEGIAN EMBASSY

Johan (Pål Sverre Hagen) lives in a small village on a remote, barren, windswept stretch of the Norwegian coast. The most popular hobby of the locals is goading on one another, and in particular, Johan. He’s an oddball even by their standards. He has three great loves in life: his horse; his beautiful neighbour, Solvor (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal); and blowing things up. Unfortunately, Solvor is among the things Johan blows up early on in life (a little bit, anyway) and she rather resents him for it.

Johan’s ham-fisted quest to be accepted for who he is turns a film full of misanthropy and spite – something that ought by rights to be as bleak as the landscape – into something almost sweet. Johan surprises us, and not just with the occasional explosion in this weird-yet-charming comedy.