Thursday 19 February 2009

Naboer (Next Door) [2005]


My introduction to Norwegian cinema turned out to a fairly pleasant one. There’s, however, a catch here – the movie isn’t pleasant where its content is concerned and hence not for lily-livered people. Naboer is an extremely disturbing thriller with high shock quotient, which reminded me of such unsettling movies like Das Experiment and Bad Timing. And, like the former, it has an exceedingly fast narrative, while, like the latter, it has touched upon controversial elements during its well concocted climax. Revealing any plot contents would be criminal on my part; so all I’ll say is that the movie is about a guy who, after a not so pleasant last visit by his former girlfriend, befriends two mysterious hot ladies who reside in an apartment adjacent to his. Filled with extreme violence and littered with brilliant twists, Naboer is a dark, taut and original movie and an engrossing ride through deadly seduction and paranoia. At slightly over 1 hour the movie might be small in length, but suffice it to say that it is quite heavy on the nerves, though in an exciting kind of way.









Director: Pal Sletaune
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller
Language: Norwegian
Country: Norway

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

"lily-livered people" ROFL

Where did you get hold of that one?!!!

Shubhajit said...

Hey, thats a legal English phrase :)

Amritorupa Kanjilal said...

this movie seems to have drained you out. maybe you should watch something light now. have you seen Little Miss Sunshine?

Shubhajit said...

I like getting drained sometimes :) As for Little Miss Sunshine, I've watched it. Its a really nice movie, but I wouldn't really call it light-hearted - it was quite a dark comedy. In fact, you'll find my review of the movie here - http://cliched-monologues.blogspot.com/2008/07/little-miss-sunshine.html. Let me know if you agree with my views on it.

sitenoise said...

Kristoffer Joner is a fine actor. Great Movie, and yes, not for "lily-livered people" Haha! How 'bout that 'sex' scene?! I reviewed this a while back and included a little clip that cuts off just before they get busy.

I love the poster. Creepy women.

Shubhajit said...

Yeah I know you'd reviewed the movie sometime back and that you'd given it a perfect 10 score. That was what drove me to get hold of the movie. So I must say thanks to you I watched this movie, cos otherwise I wouldn't have even heard of it.

And yeah, I absolutely loved that scene you referred to ;)

sitenoise said...

It's daunting, isn't it, when you consider world cinema, how many really good films are out there that we'll never know about. I think a perfect 10 was a bit generous on my part, but I really enjoyed it for its creepy, never seen these people before otherness. A 10 means I started looking forward to watching it again before it was over.

Sthito said...

Just crossed the first half-hour. Gross with capital G. You know my style; savoring the rest for the next installment, probably tomorrow!

Shubhajit said...

C'mon, don't call it gross... and its such a tiny movie in terms of length, you should have watched it in one go for the effect... savour the surprise ending...