It will come as no surprise to fans of home design that the Swedes have always been ahead of the game. While the rest of the world mopped up after WWII, the country of IKEA spent considerable time and effort investigating the needs and habits of housewives, all in the aim of making their lot easy as possible. This is the subject of Bent Hamer's new film which is already the Norwegian entry for the 2004 Academy Awards.
This is a gentle, amusing and touching film which happily pokes fun at the cultural divide between two bordering nations. The Swedes obsession with domestic science is outlined in opening scenes which depict all manner of household contraptions being diligently tested in large government research centres. We learn that the next planned situational study is to be one of single men, living alone in Norway's remote snowscapes.
The story concentrates on one of the testers, Folke (Tomas Norstrom) who arrives in his specially designed motor home to observe Isak (Joachim Calmyer), an isolated farmer who is set in his ways in rural Norway. At first Isak refuses to let Folke enter the house. When he does, and sets up camp on a high chair in the kitchen every day, Isak ignores him, retreating to cook in his bedroom.
As Folke frets over his ability to complete his project (essentially drawing charts of Isak's kitchen movements), Isak has his own ideas which include leaving Folke in the dark with a dripping tap for most of the day, or drilling a hole in his bedroom floor so that he can become the observer. Folke's bosses (and there are several amusing scenes concerning the overall project) put pressure on him for results until suddenly the two men begin to form an unlikely bond.
This is a frequently very funny film, especially in the opening set-up when Isak refuses to play along. Because neither observer nor subject were allowed to converse, much of it is played as a silent film, with sly gags emerging every couple of minutes. The two talented lead actors bring out the best in each other, and the range of characters in the film - from the obsessive project boss to the Isak's increasingly jealous neighbour - are all played very amusingly with straight bats.
When the two men decide to become friends there is a deal of talk about cultural differences (the fact that both countries drove on different sides of the road is hotly debated), but the film takes a more human feel and becomes a tale of unity for both of these desperately lonely figures. Even the most cynical will leave with a smile on their face, and Kitchen Stories must be considered an underdog for the 2004 Foreign Language Film Oscar.
