Longing for Dreams

A young uneducated woman in 1890s Norway longing for a better life is banished from home when accused of causing her family cow’s death. To liberate herself from trauma and realize her dreams she goes on a journey spanning three eras.

Director's Note

It is about longing, autonomy and dreams. The film is a study of magical time, a site-specific portrait of an accelerating society without resonance - A naive attempt to talk about the dissolution of the established communities in the hope of a potential change in the future. The story is anachronistic and haunted by ghosts.

- Sigurd Bleken

It is about longing, autonomy and dreams.

Producer's Note

Longing for Dreams is a film that has pushed and expanded the framework for what it means to make exam films at the Norwegian Film School. Both in its process, its form - and in its content. We made the film in a dialectical process, where we wrote and filmed the script for the first third part of the film, several months before we wrote and filmed the script for the next two parts. A very unique result has come out of this process. A period drama, a psychological thriller, and a visual poem. Something completely new and different. The process has helped shape the film, and has made us get to know ourselves better as human beings and as filmmakers. I believe this can be felt in the film. And I believe it is a film that invites people to reflect on their own lives, their fears and hopes for the future. Who they are and who they want to be.

- Jonas Bruun

Contact info team:

Jonas Bruun (producer), Sigurd Bleken (director), Live Skartveit (writer), Kristoffer Aabo (director of photography), Ingrid R. Saxegaard (production designer), Odin Kvistad (editor), Eivind Walberg (sound)

  • Director Sigurd Bleken
  • Writer Live Skartveit
  • Producer Jonas Bruun
  • Director of Photography Kristoffer T. Engholm
  • Production designer Ingrid Saxegaard
  • Editor Odin Kvistad
  • Sound designer Eivind B. Walberg