Feature – International / UK Premiere
Showing @ Cameo, Sun 19 June @ 12:45 & Sat 25 June @ 20:15
Marius Holst/Norway/2010/115 mins/TBC/Norwegian with English subtitles
Marius Holst brings the story of the infamous uprising at the Bostoy Reform School in 1915 to the screen, in King of Devil’s Island, a new visually stunning drama. Following a group of pupils at the school, this film shows how a rebellion by the pupils crippled this once respected institution.
The film begins when 17 year-old Erling (Benjamin Helstad) arrives in Bostoy to begin his sentence for a killing. But as he plans to escape, he discovers that the punishments and humiliations he endures are nothing compared to the unethical values of the school’s crooked Governor (Stellan Skarsgard).
Comprised of stunning shots of Bostoy, King of Devil’s Island is both beautiful and powerful, as the ice and snow served as the perfect habitat for the film’s premise of corruption, abuse, intimidation, injustice and revenge. While King of Devil’s Island presents the story of an explosion of violence, the power of this movie lies in how it chooses to present the violence, with some of the film’s more shocking moments taking place off screen, giving them much more power than the actual violent moments. While the film’s story of pupils overcoming their abusive and corrupt elders is a tale that many people will be familiar with, King of Devil’s Island manages to achieve and also maintain a sense of rage at the injustices that the characters have to endure throughout the film. And it’s this feeling of anger at the lies, punishments and treatments that take place throughout the movie that gives the film such an edge over other similar films. Harsh, cold, invigorating and thought-provoking, King of Devil’s Island, like Lindsay Anderson’s If forces us to face what we are all capable of if all our power is taken away from us.