City of Tigers
SULT2020
2024 WINNER - BEST DIRECTOR
2024 NOMINEE - BEST PICTURE
2022
Norway
91 mins
Norwegian
NYC Premiere
Feature Film Competition
| Jan Vardøen | |
| Jan Vardøen, Christine Robsahm | |
| Jonathan Chedeville (The Painter), Mimmi Tamba (Ylajali), Bjørn Sundquist (Happolati), Helen Vikstvedt (Fru Gundersen) |
“City of Tigers” is based on the 1896 novel by Knut Hamsun and is widely considered to be the world’s first modern novel. The main character is a starving artist roaming the streets of Oslo during the present-day pandemic, a situation that only exacerbates his feeling of estrangement from a society that is separated from him. On his travels, he meets a host of characters who both help and impede him and follows a woman he met in his previous life who he names Yljali, after a fictitious Iranian princess. The artist desperately searches for authenticity in his work even if it means he might not survive. This film is an unapologetic love letter to the city that “leaves its mark on all who have lived there”.
About the Director
This is Jan Vardøen’s sixth feature. He was born in Rotherhithe, London, grew up in West Cork, Ireland, but is Norwegian and lives and works in Oslo. His previous features are “Heart of Lightness”, “Autumn Fall”, “House of Norway”, “Oslo Copenhagen”. He also directed the Philip Glass documentary “Descent into the Maelstrom”. He writes, produces and directs all of his films as well as scoring them. (His musical alter ego is “Ian Senior”). He is the author of many books, fiction and non-fiction.
Reviews
“City of Tigers” – a portrait of the (starving) artist as a young man – by Cristina Slattery, Winter Film Awards
Fantastic Hamsun Adaptation – Subjekt, by Cornelius C. Steinkjær
The Hungry Artist – Filmpolitiet, by Sigurd Vik i NRK
Trailer
