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Features: DVD, Letterbox, Trailers, English, Subtitled
Disgraced Swedish detective Jonas Engstrom (Stellan Skarsgard) travels to northern Norway to solve a brutal murder in Insomnia. Unable to sleep through the night of the midnight sun, Engstrom quickly loses his grip on the case and his mind. Erik Skjoldbjaerg's debut feature is a deft amalgam of psychological thriller, morality play and police procedural. Criterion presents the DVD premiere of Insomnia in a new widescreen transfer.Click here for more Criterion favorites!
"...a taut debut feature..." Janet Maslin, New York Times
"...a moody little masterpiece that may disturb your slumber..." Jim Byerley, HBO On-Line
Editor's Note
Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard (BREAKING THE WAVES, GOOD WILL HUNTING) gives a compelling performance as Jonas Engstrom, an exiled Swedish city detective working in Norway who travels to the small coastal town of Tromso in order to investigate the murder of a teenage girl. When he makes a fatal mistake in the investigation, however, his own conscience, coupled with the insomnia caused by the 24-hour summer sunlight of northernmost Norway, sets Engstrom on the path to insanity. Director Erik Skjoldbjaerg creates palpable tension in this strong, subtle film.
Plot Summary
Swedish detective Jonas Engstrom is working out of the Norwegian city of Oslo after being transferred following an indiscretion with a witness. When he finds himself investigating the murder of a young woman just beyond the Arctic Circle in the gray Norwegian coastal town of Tromso, sunlight, fog, the 24-hour sunlight, and suspicious locals conspire to push Engstrom to the edge of sanity. A lack of sleep, questionable ethics, and a fatal mistake in his investigative procedure cause this lonely outsider to battle himself as much as the locals in his fight to solve the case.
| Features | Optimal Image Quality | | Theatrical Trailer | | Norwegian Dolby Stereo | | Swedish Dolby Stereo | | Widescreen Version | | English Subtitles | | TV Spots |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Home Vision/Public Media |
| Release Date: 7/27/1999 |
| Running Time: 97 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1997 | | Catalog ID: 030 | | UPC: 00037429138229 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: Swedish | | Available Audio Tracks: Norwegian, Swedish | | Available Subtitles: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Cannes Film Festival (1997) | | | Erik Skjoldbjaerg, Nominee, Golden Camera Award |
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"...[A] subtly unsettling film....[The] understated, elliptical direction keeps the material dangerous and volatile..." 05/29/1998 p.E14Los Angeles Times
"...A work of style and irony with a strong sense of mood and atmosphere It's virtually flawless as it builds inexorably to a finish that is as impossible to predict as it is satisfying..." 06/05/1998 p.C10 Sight and Sound
"...Skjoldbjaerg makes excellent use of the austere landscapes and oppressive grey light and also elicits an exceptional performance from Skarsgaard..." 05/01/2003 p.68 HBO On-Line 0 of 10
It's not often that we get a film noir from Scandinavia. A terrific example has just arrived in Insomnia. Stellan Skarsgard, from Breaking The Waves and Good Will Hunting, is superb as the sleep-deprived hero of director Erik Skjoldbjaerg's crime drama... Insomnia is a moody little masterpiece that may disturb your slumber too. - Jim Byerley
New York Times 0 of 10
Early in the film, a taut debut feature directed by Erik Skjoldbjaerg, the investigator Jonas Engstrom (Stellan Skarsgard) becomes complicit in the crime in ways he could not have anticipated, and his discreet paranoia sets the tone for the rest of this enveloping story. Engstrom makes a grievous misstep and spends the rest of the film trying to protect his secret. Though Insomnia has the makings of a standard police procedural tale, beginning with the killing of a beautiful young woman named Tanja (Maria Mathiesen), it has the style of a more unnerving psychological thriller. As written concisely by Nikolaj Frobenius, it contrasts the standard crime investigation with Engstrom's private nightmare, which is made that much more disturbing by his stony, guarded demeanor and furtive worries... [It's] a subtly unsettling film that rarely stops to spell out its plot developments... Skarsgard's performance as a man pushed to the breaking point gives the film its share of Hitchcockian undercurrents. And Skjoldbjaerg's understated, elliptical direction keeps the material dangerous and volatile, with frequent small touches of the unexpected as Engstrom shows increasing signs of strain. Northern Norway, an evocatively forbidding backdrop for the story, is a major factor in the film's unusual moodiness, presenting an outward visual manifestation of the chilly mysteries that lurk within. - Janet Maslin
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| Customer Reviews | ![]() | | Cinematography |  4 | | Plot | 4 | | Acting | 4 | | Overall Satisfaction |  4.5 |
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5 of 5 The juxtaposition of dark and light Friday, August 13, 1999
Christopher Muise from Atlanta, GA
Insomnia embodies the very contrasts that define our lives--nothing has meaning without an exact opposite. Detective Jonas Engstrom's unnerving darkness and thinly vailed failings are flawlessly and painstakingly juxtaposed to the ibiquitous light in which he lives his life. As his inner light dims, his outer light magnifies. A veritable tour de force in which man's constant struggle of moral imperative vs. selfish desire becomes an all-consuming whirlpool of contradictions and self-doubt. A true classic. Was this review helpful?  
5 of 5 Insomnia--a atmospheric headtrip Thursday, August 05, 1999
The Entertainian from Seattle, WA
Calling all Stellan Skarsgard fans. Insomnia is one trippy, tightly woven thriller. Skarsgard is at the top of his game and is second only to this film's outstandingly isolated atmosphere and camera work. Was this review helpful?
0 of 1 customers found this review helpful.
4 of 5 Sunday, August 01, 1999
A Viewer from
An excellent movie if you would like to experience something outside the Hollywood main stream. Was this review helpful?
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