Insomnia [Criterion Collection] [DVD] [1997]

Norwegian filmmaker Erik Skjoldbjaerg makes his directorial debut with the psychological police drama Insomnia. Swedish homicide detective Jonas Engström (Stellan Skarsgård) and his partner, Erik Vik (Sverre Anker Ousdal), arrive in a small Northern Norwegian town to help the local police investigate the murder of a teenage girl. When Jonas finds the girl’s backpack, he sets a trap for the killer near a remote shed. While waiting to make an ambush in the morning fog, Jonas accidentally shoots Erik. He knows it was only an accident, but he decides to keep it a secret because he could lose his job. Jonas chooses to carry on with his investigation while trying to cover up the evidence of Erik’s death. Meanwhile, he’s unable to get any sleep due to the constant sunlight of the Norwegian summer and his increasingly guilty conscience. His only help comes from highly intuitive local police officer Hilda Haugen (Gisken Armand), who begins to form her own doubts about Jonas. As he continues to lose his grip on the case at hand, he becomes dangerously close to the suspects, Jon Holt (Bjørn Floberg) and Frøya (Marianne O. Ulrichsen). Filmmaker Christopher Nolan directed the English-language remake of Insomnia in 2002 with Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank.~Andrea LeVasseur

Features

New conversation between director Erik Skjoldbjærg and actor Stellan Skarsgård

Two short films by Skjoldbjærg: Near Winter (1993) and Close to Home (1994)

Trailer

Details

• Genre Drama,Thriller,Foreign Films
• Subgenre Psychological Thriller,Police Detective Film,Post-Noir (Modern Noir)
• Title Insomnia
• Countries Produced Norway
• Duration 97 minutes
• Year of Release 1997
• Product Tags Criterion Collection, DVD
• Format DVD
• Program Type Movie
• Sound Features stereo, monaural
• Screen Format Enhanced Widescreen for 16×9 TV
• Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
• Language Norwegian, Swedish
• Subtitles English
• Region Code 1
• Studio Criterion

Other

• Product Name Insomnia [Criterion Collection] [DVD] [1997]
• UPC 715515120111