Canadian film next KFS offering

ARTS/ ENTERTAINMENT — The KFS Winter Film Series concludes Thursday, Feb. 26 with Violent, an independent Canadian film that won major awards at last year’s Vancouver International Film Festival. The film screens at the Paramount Theatre at 7 p.m.

Violent is a Canada/Norway film in Norwegian with English subtitles, directed by Andrew Huculiak and starring Dagny Backer Johnsen, Mari Sofie Andreassen and Karl Bird.

The film follows Dagne ( Johnsen), a young woman longing to escape small town life and move to the big city. Dagne’s mother arranges for her to work for a family friend who lives in the city.

Dagne recalls her most recent memories of the five people who loved her the most, all while experiencing a catastrophic event.

Violent is a coming of age story, one of self discovery and self reflection. Of particular interest is the fact that the film script was written in English and translated into Norwegian, with no one on the production team knowing the language, yet being able to sub-title the film effectively.

In addition, the film — the debut production for Amazing Factory Productions — was made for $300,000 with fewer than five crew members on set at any given time.

The film was showcased at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, and acts as a companion to the Vancouver band We Are the City’s album of the same name. The film was screened to critical acclaim at the Vancouver International Film Festival in September 2014, being awarded “Best Canadian Film” and “Best British Columbia Film” at the VIFF.

Stuart Derdeyn, writing in The Province, called this film “a poetic and beautiful tale of tragedy” and “an impressive debut, capturing both a distinctly Scandinavian and, perhaps, Canadian way of looking at traumatic events.”