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Last night I got round to watching Norwegian 2016 film The Last King (original title Birkebeinerne), a drama set in medieval Norway telling a true* story from the Norwegian civil war of the rescue of the infant king Håkon Håkonsson by two members of the Birkebeiner faction who skied with him over the mountains to safety, and 800 years or so later led to a commemorative ski marathon. I'm never particularly hopeful about medieval-set films, but I was pleasantly surprised by this, which stuck to a 90 minute retelling of the core story with sufficient context to give the point to it, but without feeling the need to spiral off into multiple sub-plots telling the director's vision of the entire conflict. It's very well-acted, it's pretty well-written, and it is exceedingly well-skied. I'm rather suspicious that it was made in the first place because someone looked at this famous painting and this well-known Norwegian actor and drew the obvious conclusion that if Kristofer Hivju is a dead ringer for a medieval Norwegian nation hero he should play one, and if so it was certainly a good choice as Hivju's combination of a commanding screen presence with a certain warmth works really well. They also have an absolutely charming youngster playing baby Håkon in scenes that I assume involved quite a lot of improvisation. So, if you like medieval-set dramas, corners of European national and church history you may not know about, or winter sports I definitely recommend it (currently on Amazon Prime in the UK). I was also very impressed with the ponies. The stunt skiing is one thing and it is fantastic**, but the stunt riding had me holding my breath for people galloping horses along icy tracks.
I was also interested in how it was marketed to different audience. This is the Norwegian trailer, aimed at an audience who are largely going to be aware of the basic story from school, in the same way that you don't need to tell an English audience who Henry VIII is. No English subtitles, but you can get the point without them. TL:DR there is actual dialogue (and an evil Danish bishop).
This is a pretty accurate representation of the film.
This is the English-language trailer. It's got quite a lot in common with Norwegian one, but has to do a different job of introducing the concept to an audience who don't know the plot simply from the title. However despite the overlap in visual material it manages to be epically cheesy and cliched. The voiceover feels antiquated in style, they've shoved in every vaguely sexy shot they could, and very carefully made sure that there isn't a single word of dialogue that might give away that the film is actually in Norwegian.
*As far as film goes, that is.
** The lead actors did quite a lot of it, but there is some they definitely didn't. Bushy beards are a great help to stunt teams, I imagine.
I was also interested in how it was marketed to different audience. This is the Norwegian trailer, aimed at an audience who are largely going to be aware of the basic story from school, in the same way that you don't need to tell an English audience who Henry VIII is. No English subtitles, but you can get the point without them. TL:DR there is actual dialogue (and an evil Danish bishop).
This is a pretty accurate representation of the film.
This is the English-language trailer. It's got quite a lot in common with Norwegian one, but has to do a different job of introducing the concept to an audience who don't know the plot simply from the title. However despite the overlap in visual material it manages to be epically cheesy and cliched. The voiceover feels antiquated in style, they've shoved in every vaguely sexy shot they could, and very carefully made sure that there isn't a single word of dialogue that might give away that the film is actually in Norwegian.
*As far as film goes, that is.
** The lead actors did quite a lot of it, but there is some they definitely didn't. Bushy beards are a great help to stunt teams, I imagine.