Peter Viney's Blog

Directed by Erik Skjoldbjaerg
Written by Christopher Grøndahl
Music by Christine Hals

The Netflix title in 2023 is Narvik.
The original Norwegian title in 2022 was The Battle of Narvik: Hitler’s First Defeat
Netflix from 23 January 2023

MAIN CAST:

Kristine Hartgen – Ingrid Tofte
Carl Martin Eggesbø – Korporal Gunnar Tofte
Stig Henrik Hoff -Alask Tofte, Gunnar’s father
Christopher Bach- German Consul Fritz Wussow
Henrik Mestad – Major Sigurd Omdal
Holgar Handkte – General Dietl, German commander
Emil Johnsen – the mayor
Isak Bakli Agen – Korporal Larsen
Ollie Campbell- British consul
Magnus Dugdale- Giles Romilly

One of the weekend newspapers tipped this as ‘streamed film of the week’ which led us there. It’s a Norwegian film, which means on Netflix you can have it in Norwegian with English subtitles, or in English with English subtitles. Like so many Scandinavian productions, the actors simply record it twice, once in their own language, and once in English. It’s a given that they can all do that. They do it so well that the older Major character stands out by having a rolling old-fashioned strong Norwegian accent which none of the others do.

A 50s childhood was full of Second World War references and tales of events. I remembered Narvik as a standout event from a British gung-ho point of view. We knew about it … Airfix produced model kits of the key British ship HMS Warspite and a German Narvik Class destroyer. I believe I had both.

History

No important plot spoilers, but the basic history for those who didn’t have Airfix kits in the 1950s:

Narvik was the port for shipping high grade Swedish iron ore, which the Germans and British both wanted. Norway was initially neutral, with both German and British ships loading ore there.

Hitler invaded Norway on 1^st March 1940. The battles of Narvik took place between April and June 1940, with initially naval battles and the Germans occupying Narvik. The British fleet blockaded and retaliated.

Eventually, Norwegian ski troops with French Alpine troops and a Polish contingent (from Britain) defeated the Germans and retook the town. It was Hitler’s first ever defeat. It was a short-lived victory as the Germans, by then occupying Norway bombed the town into near oblivion, as the inhabitants fled further north. By June, the British had had to withdraw their fleet for self-protection after the Germans took France.

The war certainly resonates in Norway. There is a point in the film where Norwegian troops take a German position, pick up boxes and say angrily, ‘Swedish ammunition!’ That brought back a memory of a short author tour: Sweden, Norway, Denmark. OUP, my publisher, had deemed it too expensive to send the rep responsible for Scandinavia with me (he was based in the UK). I set off alone with £30 given me in advance for meals (it was May 1984). It all went the first night in Stockholm on a small steak, a few chips, a salad and a tiny glass of red wine. OUP had thought the distributors would entertain me to dinner. Wrong. At 6 pm after my Stockholm talk, it was ‘Thank you. Good night.’ I mentioned that it was too expensive to send a rep with me in Norway, and the book distributor said, ‘OUP have plenty of money. Too much. The rep has a SAAB!’ I had one too and considered it good, but hardly luxurious, so said, ‘The Swedes make very good cars …’ only to be told very firmly that it was because Sweden had spent the war making profit while Norway fought the Germans. So much for the famed Scandinavian unity. I mentioned the conversation to the distributor in Denmark, who instantly said, ‘Absolutely right. The Swedes were mainly pro-German. Denmark saved a higher proportion of Jews than anywhere else.’ I’ll add that the Danish distributor was the only one who took me to dinner after my talk.

The film

Minimal plot spoilers …

It centres around the Tofte family. Gunnar is an army corporal. His wife, Ingrid, works in the main hotel. It is past the point of minimalist Scandinavian to ‘bare and unwelcoming.’ The Germans occupy the hotel, taking every room. She speaks German and is used as an interpreter. They have a small son, Ole, who is six, and they live with Gunnar’s father, Alask. When the Germans arrive, the Major defies their orders and marches the Norwegian troops out of town.

They need to blow up a high railway bridge, I’m avoiding plot spoilers, but Gunnar is a hero, and yet gets captured with Larssen, his friend, by the Germans.

In the town the shelling continues, and Ingrid helps the British consulate group escape the Germans to a cabin. She is forced to be the interpreter still, and the town is being shelled. She also is persuaded to find military maps and give them to the British, who send information back by morse code. Well, if you have all day, why not? The little boy, Ole is injured by shrapnel. It is so rare for Norwegians to make a mistake in English, but twice the subtitles say he was injured by ‘grenades’ when they mean either naval shells, or aerial bombs. Sorry! Ironically, the shells will be from the British ships.

Meanwhile Gunnar is a kind of slave labour for the German entrenched troops around the town. The French attack, and he gets back to the Norwegian / French side and performs more heroics.

Back in Narvik, Ole is seriously ill from infection around the wound. The German consul has taken a liking to Ingrid. She needs a doctor for her child and it’s a moment of choice. This will have repercussions.

The town is liberated, but immediately bombed again. Real photos are on the credits.

It resonates powerfully in 2023 because it is highly personalized around the family. We found it moving, and the image of a town being shelled from both sides (German and British) with snow on the ground and old people, women and children huddled in terror in basements can only bring up images of Ukraine now. It’s freezing. Ingrid and Gunnar’s faces are scarlet with frost burning. Kristine Hartgen gives a tremendous nuanced performance as Ingrid. Many of the fighting scenes in snow have you on the edge of your seat.

Narvik: after the bombing. The real picture: