Synopsis
In this kafkaesque meeting a mother and her son is fighting a clogged bureaucracy that intensify the personal suffering it is supposed to remedy. The story is based on the directors own experiences with her brother suffering from schizophrenia. The film is inspired by both theater and documentary.
Documentary / Hybrid Short, 2017
HD Red 16:9
Duration: 14.49 min
Prizes
Honorary Mention, Nordic Docs
The Hourglass, Writers Guild of Norway
Director: Ellen Ugelstad
Cinematography: Audun Magnæs
Editor: Kirsti Marie Hougen, Ellen Ugelstad
Produced by: Ellen Ugelstad, Twentyone Pictures
Supported by
Norwegian Filminstitute LAB (NFI), The Freedom Of Expression Foundation (Fritt Ord) and Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond
Festivals & Screenings
Look and Roll, Switzerland September 2018
Stavanger Theatre, Mental Health Concerence 2017
AMIFF, Artic Moving Image & Film Festival, Harstad, 2017
Høstutstillingen 2017
ØyaKino 2017
Nettkino, july 2017
Cinemateket, Norwegian Shorts
Nordic Docs 2017, Fredrikstad
The Norwegian Shortfilmfestival, 2017
JURY STATEMENT THE NORWEGIAN SHORT FILM FESTIVAL THE HOURGLASS AWARD
This year’s HOURGLASS award is given by the Writers Guild of Norway, go to a film where the screenplay shines through a complicated piece of work. The film masterfully manages to describe a situation and tell a story that we as an audience know its fiction, but that always feels real. That´s not easy. The films have a clear and apparent story that helps us to understand the frustration and powerlessness the people in the film feels. It’s a story that moves us emotionally while we were watching and sticks around after we have seen it. It shows a side bureaucracy specifically mental health care, that cannot turn our backs to. How mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, often have to put their life on hold in order to care of their sick ones. All because the system is unable to take care of them. This year’s winner is an important film and though it’s a screenplay, it manages to portrait exactly this reality.