Second Sight are giving their extra special treatment to director and co-writer Erik Skjoldbjaerg’s Nordic Noir thriller starring Stellan Skarsgård, and which was remade a few years later by Christopher Nolan with Al Pacino in the lead.
Police officers Jonas Engström (Skarsgård) and Eric Vik (Sverre Anker Ousdal) come to the north of Norway to investigate the murder of a 17 year old girl. Engström is considered brilliant but a cloud hangs over him because of his sexual relationship with a witness in a previous case. A trap is set for the killer but it goes wrong and Engström mistakenly shoots Vik dead. His seniors believe the killer did it but a full investigation is ordered, meaning that as well as catching the girl’s killer, Engström now has to cover up his involvement in Vik’s killing as well.
A dog dies as part of Engström’s cover up. I’ll put that up there now because I know there are people out there who will want to know. In the Nolan version Pacino’s character comes across a dead dog but here Skjoldbjaerg is keen to blur the line between cop and criminal with Skarsgård’s performance, and while Engström is good at getting the job done he’s also ruthless, self-serving, and inappropriate with some of his female acquaintances. INSOMNIA is a cold, very blue (literally) film and if you’re a fan of Nordic Noir and haven’t seen this you’ll definitely want to add it to your list.
Second Sight’s 4K UHD / Blu-ray limited edition combo set comes with a commentary from Erik Skjoldbjaerg and co-writer Nikolaj Frobenius (in English, in case you were wondering) which is scene-specific. Other extras include interviews with Skjoldbjaerg (29 minutes), and producer Petter J Borgli (who explains why their names aren’t on the US version, 10 minutes). Alexandra Heller-Nicholas provides a 12 minute video essay analysis of the film, and there are three Skjoldbjaerg short films: Spor (17 minutes), Close to Home (31 minutes and made while the director was in the UK) and Near Winter (34 minutes).
The limited edition also comes with a 120 page book with new essays, six art cards and a rigid slipcase to keep it all in.
Eric Skjoldbjaerg’s INSOMNIA is out from Second Sight in a limited edition 4K UHD / Blu-ray set as well as standard edition separate UHD and Blu-ray releases on Monday 25th May 2026
No comments:
Post a Comment