King of Devil's Island
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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King of Devil's Island is a 2010 Norwegian film directed by Marius Holst. The film premiered in Norway on 17 December 2010 and was next shown at the international film festivals of Sweden (January 2011), Rotterdam (February 2011). and during the Lübeck Nordic Film Days 2011. The story is based on true events that occurred at Bastøy Prison in Norway.
Shooting for King of Devil's Island took place mostly in Estonia.
Plot
At the Bastøy prison for youths, the newest arrival, Erling "C19," soon becomes friends with Olav ("C1"). Under the rule of Håkon, Erling comes to terms with the harsh winter, the mistreatment by the staff, and the hated Housefather Bråthen. Later, Olav sees Bråthen molesting "C5", Ivar, a timid, shy boy in the laundry room. When he raises this with the Governor, the boys are severely punished and C5 is reassigned to duties far away from Bråthen. However, after hearing that Bråthen expects him to be back in the laundry room tomorrow Ivar drowns himself in the freezing Norwegian waters, while the rest of the boys are chopping wood. Bråthen is apparently fired, to the overwhelming delight of the other boys. Olav is paroled and is planning to leave, but on the way to the departing boat, walks past Bråthen, who had been sent away on a shopping trip until Olav, the only witness to Ivar's rape, had left Bastøy. Olav and Erling attack Bråthen and as punishment they are locked in the freezing solitary confinement. They are freed by Bjern, one of the few Bastøy boys who has remained on the island as a caretaker. Olav again pursues Bråthen, and the attack inspires a mass uprising. The boys ransack the prison, and drive away the staff. Bråthen is repeatedly hanged and released and then beaten. The barn he is in is set ablaze, but Erling drags him to safety. The navy is brought in and violently puts down the uprising. Olav and Erling manage to escape across a frozen fjord back to the mainland, but Erling falls through a gap in the ice close to shore and quickly freezes to death.
Olav is shown later, older, as a member of a ship's crew, watching Bastøy pass by the side of his ship.
Cast
- Stellan Skarsgård as Håkon
- Benjamin Helstad as Erling "C19"
- Trond Nilssen as Olav "C1"
- Kristoffer Joner as Bråthen
- Ellen Dorrit Petersen as Astrid
- Magnus Langlete as Ivar "C5"
Historical background
Although it is set in winter, the film is a fictionalized retelling of a rebellion among the youth at the Bastøy Reform School in May of 1915. The reformatory was located on Bastøy Island in the Oslo fjord south of Horten municipality in the county of Vestfold Norway. The Norwegian government purchased the island in 1898 for 95,000 kroner, and the reformatory opened in 1900.
See Bastøy Prison for the real events which the film fictionalizes.
