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POIGNANT ENSEMBLE DRAMA ABOUT KURDISH REFUGEES
A group of refugees are on a bus bound for Oslo, visiting the capital city in a land promising new beginnings. But for five people, it’s a day to rectify their past and justify a new future. We follow them as they each explore their possibilities – a secret love, a new life, a white lie, fulfilling a dream and avenging the death of a husband.
Their stories are bound together by a letter to the King of Norway, written by eighty-two year old Mirza.
Having nabbed the Nordic film prize at the Gothenburg Film Festival for 2013′s “Before Snowfall,” Norwegian helmer Hisham Zaman pulled off the same honor for the second year in a row with his sophomore effort, “Letter to the King,” a poignant ensemble drama that crosscuts among various refugees and asylum seekers, each with their individual hopes and agendas, as they spend a day in Oslo.
Variety
The film’s only 75 minutes long, which means that each of the five interconnected storylines has less than 15 minutes to introduce the characters, develop their conflicts and bring their stories to a close. But Zaman does so beautifully, further confirming he’s a storyteller of significant economy and observational skill as well as talent.
With this low-budget but impressive film, which was released in Norway at the end of January, the writer-director managed to take win the top prize at Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival, the Dragon Award, for the second year in a row after last year’s win for his debut, Before Snowfall.
The Hollywood Reporter
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