The bothersome man, Jens Lien, Norge, 2006

The Bothersome Man Forty-year-old Andreas arrives in a strange city with no memory of how he got there. He is presented with a job, an apartment - even a wife. But before long, Andreas notices that something is wrong. The people around him seem cut off from any real emotion, and communicate only in superficialities. The ominous ”Caretakers”, who make sure the city runs smoothly, keep an increasing watch over Andreas as they find he doesn’t fit in. Andreas makes an attempt to escape the city, but he discovers there’s no way out. The Bothersome Man describes a world not unlike our own. A sarcastic and tinted view of our affluent lives in the Nordic countries. A society where all problems have been ironed out. Empathy has become surplus – an empty friendliness has taken its place. Kitchen furnishings have replaced love, and social rituals have replaced friendship. Normality in all its grotesqueness. In The Bothersome Man there is neither death nor dreams, and no love either. When Andreas Ramsfjell arrives in this society, everything has been laid out for him. He is given a place to stay, a job and clothes. He is handed a life. Not unlike the destiny of a refugee coming to Norway. The film describes total loneliness in a world that has everything – but that's also all it has. A society which has lost something along the way in its quest for perfection. A dead society. NFI/olep