Insomnia

This is the original Norwegian mystery thriller from 1997 and not the American remake from 2002. INSOMNIA marks the Erik Skjoldbjaerg directorial debut and stars recent Academy Award-nominee Stellan Skarsgard as a deeply unsympathetic police officer whose attempts of solving a murder case take an unexpected and harrowing twist. Released in a lush, Limited Dual Edition (4K UHD and Blu-ray), INSOMNIA is a gripping affair beginning to end!

Right from the opening sequence, during which 17-year old Tanja is assaulted in a barn and is ultimately fatally wounded when the assailant, whom we don’t see, pushes her against a wooden board out of which a long nail protrudes, we know that we’re in for something unpleasant. For one, the sequence during which Tanja is attacked is played over and over again as if on forward/rewind/forward/rewind. Her killer then undresses her and goes to great lengths to scrub her nails and even washes her blood-soaked hair in order not to leave any DNA on the victim.

When, several days later, her corpse is found at a garbage dump in the city of Tromso, which is located far up in the Norwegian Arctic, two investigating police officers, Jonas Engström (S. Skarsgard) and Erik Vik (Sverre Anker Ousdal) are entrusted with the case. Engström is by the way not Norwegian but Swedish and was formerly employed with the Swedish police. He got dismissed when he was caught having sex with a main witness and relocated to Norway. The fact that he got caught having sex with a witness already tells us that Engström is somewhat of an unsavoury character. His Norwegian colleague Vik is close to retirement age and his hearing is no longer the best - an important fact as it soon turns out, which will cost him his life…

Teased behind his back by his Norwegian colleagues over his sexual escapade back in Sweden, the only people neutral towards him are Vik and Hilde Hagen (Gisken Armand). Unfazed, Engström proceeds with finding Tanja’s killer though increasingly, he has a hard time adjusting to the midnight sun and tries to darken his hotel room with blankets and sellotape, which he borrows from young receptionist Ana (Maria Bonevie). Meanwhile, Vik resides in the hotel room next to him and tells him a funny story about a mix up with hotel rooms a few years ago.

Engström then visits the school which Tanja attended in the hope to find out more about her. Her boyfriend Eilert (Bjorn Man), who attended the same party on the night Tanja had left without him, claims not to know where she went after she had left the party. Her classmate Froya (Marianne O. Ulrichsen) clearly detested Tanja and seems to be interested in Eilert herself. Although Engström doesn’t find out as much as he would like, he establishes the fact that Tanja must have seen another man apart from Eilert, a man older and above all, much richer because of the expensive designer clothes the police find in Tanja’s wardrobe.

Plan B is to lure the murderer back to the scene of the crime and as Engström, Vik and other police officers re-trace the steps of Tanja’s murder and make their way to the barn in which she got killed, a figure is spotted in the fog vanishing inside the barn, which is immediately surrounded by police. However, a hole in the Barn’s ground leads to a secret tunnel in which the culprit (they assume it is the killer) escapes and Engström and Vik chase after him. When Engström orders his colleague to take a left turn, he mishears him and takes a right turn and when, minutes later, he runs towards Engström, he assumes it’s the killer and not Vik and shoots him dead. As if this weren’t bad enough, none of the other policemen carry guns, it’s only Engström still carrying a gun from his days back in Sweden, where all policemen carry firearms. Of course, the other colleagues assume that Vik was killed by the fugitive and Engström - not wishing to add fuel to the fire - decides not to come clean over what really happened, even shooting a poor stray dog in order to extract a bullet and tamper with evidence. The swine! When Nina is assigned with investigating Vik’s death, Engström soons finds himself in the thick of it, trying to cover up evidence that he accidentally shot Vik.

Returning to school and inviting arrogant pupil Froya for a spin in his car, driving her to the rubbish dump where Tanja’s corpse was found, he makes a pass at her in his car before the terrified girl reveals that Tanja used to see an older man, a well-known author by the name of Jon Holt (Bjørn Floberg) who bought her expensive gifts.

Now that he knows that the killer is in all likelihood Jon Holt, a deadly cat- and mouse game between the two men begins while at the same time, Engström gradually loses his grip on reality due to his insomnia and his guilt over having shot colleague Vik. Still, he is prepared to go to any length to save his own sorry ass, even if it means framing Tanja’s ex-boyfriend Eilert when Holt reveals that he saw Engström shooting Vik at the fog-shrouded moors… But for how much longer can Engström get away with his own lies?

This is nail-biting stuff indeed and don’t be put off by the Norwegian dialogue and English subtitles, it’s all easy to follow and really, it is incredibly well acted!

This Dual-Format release is housed in a rigid slipcase complete with a 120-page booklet and six collector’s art cards. Other bonus material are audio commentary, interviews and three short films by director Eric Skjoldbjaerg.