Beloved

In a remote village on the Norwegian coast, Gerd visits the only pub in her village, where a band happens to be playing that evening. She falls head over heels for guitarist Asle, and love starts to blossom between the two. They move in together, have a son and their happiness seems complete, but family life turns out to be stifling for the introverted Asle. He has trouble sharing his emotions and decides to head out onto the open sea instead, leaving Gerd to take care of their son. A silent battle follows between loving hope and all-consuming desire, which drives the two further and further apart. With a minimalist style, Beloved unfolds into a moving, poetic drama about falling in love and maintaining that love, set against the rugged coast of northwestern Norway. How much can love endure before it finally breaks?

Director Erik Poppe's Beloved premiered this summer as the opening film of the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, after which the film was selected for the Reykjavík International Film Festival. The screening at the Northern Film Festival is the Dutch premiere. The screenplay is written by Jon Fosse, who is the most performed Norwegian playwright after Henrik Ibsen. Born in Haugesund, Fosse wrote the story back in 1998, but it only really started to take shape after he was rewarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2023. In addition to plays, Fosse also writes poetry, prose and children's books. Beloved is his first and only film script.