In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Norwegian screenwriter and director Per Blom's fifth feature film which he wrote, is an adaptation of a novel from 1963 by Norwegian novelist Tarjei Vesaas (1897-1970). It premiered in Norway, was screened in the Panorama section at the 38th Berlin International Film Festival in 1988, was shot on location in Norway and is a Norwegian production which was produced by Norwegian screenwriters, producers and directors Lasse Glomm (1944-1996) and Ola Solum (1943-1996). It tells the story about an 11-year-old girl named Unn who lives in a house with her aunt at a place called Stemland in Norway and who one day is visited by her eleven-year-old friend named Siss who lives with her parents. During the time they spend together that evening, they undress in front of each other and Unn tells Siss a secret which she promises not to tell anyone else. A few days after their meeting, Unn walks up in the mountains and finds something that looks like an ice palace.Subtly and precisely directed by Norwegian filmmaker Per Blom, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated mostly from the two main characters' viewpoints, draws a humane and involving portrayal of a close to telepathic relationship between two Norwegian students. While notable for its naturalistic and atmospheric milieu depictions, sterling cinematography by Norwegian cinematographer Halvor Næss, production design by Norwegian production designer and costume designer Ingeborg Kvamme and costume design by costume designer Inger Derlick, this narrative-driven story about friendship and alienation where the ... caused and created by ... which makes a girl retreat into herself and wander off after a moment of genuine trust between her and her friend who has to battle that same ... on her own, depicts two heartrending and internal studies of character and contains a poignant score by Norwegian composers Geir Bøhren and Bent Åserud.This modestly conversational, prominently atmospheric, reflective and lyrical coming-of-age drama from the late 1980s which is set during a winter in a rustic community in Norway where people speak New Norwegian in the late 20th century and where a motherless and fatherless adolescent girl disappears from her home and her only friend is left in wonder and sadness trying to come to terms with what has happened to the person she found a crucial human connection with, is impelled an reinforced by its fragmented narrative structure, subtle character development and continuity, contemplating characters, intimate examination of its central themes, telling use of music, psychological and emotional incisiveness, graceful flashback scenes and scenes between Unn and Siss and the memorable and understated acting performances by Norwegian actresses Line Storesund and Hilde Nyeggen Martinsen. A cinematographic, somewhat esoteric and eloquent mystery.

Based on an iconic book which appeared in the early sixties, by Norwegian national treasure Tarjei Vesaas, Per Blom's film shows how the swiftly developing relationship between two recently met pre-adolescent girls, Siss (a local girl) and the more introvert Unn (a newcomer) culminates in their deciding, in Unn's bedroom and at her suggestion, to undress in the spirit of mutual curiosity. Unn wants to know if she looks odd in some way, and confesses she harbours a secret so grave that she may be damned, but Siss cannot discern how Unn is particularly unusual. As time creaks by, the girls become uncomfortable at their own nudity and the scene ends in awkwardness. Then we see Siss quickly running home through the darkness.The next day, to postpone her own inevitable embarrassment, Siss avoids meeting Unn at school by going off alone to look at a frozen waterfall. She wanders awestruck around the massive icy structure, passing from one great vaulted chamber to the next, but at length gets lost inside and falls victim to the numbing cold. Finally, she dies of hypothermia, her new friend's name on her lips at the end. Search parties seek the lost girl in vain on the snow-covered hills into the darkness, while Unn seems perplexed then struck dumb by the unexplained disappearance of Siss. We see her alone in the school yard and, in a scene of calculated longeur, lying naked in the bath. The fate of Siss, while only an indirect consequence of the episode between the girls, leads to Unn being emotionally isolated in a way that parallels Siss's loneliness on first arriving in the district.I saw this film on British TV soon after its release in the late eighties, when Blom was being feted internationally. Twenty four years had elapsed since the book's publication and the very unworldliness ('innocence' is perhaps too charged a word) at the centre of the story was already out of step with the cynical knowingness then hardening into political correctness here in the UK. It was a bold decision to show it then outside of art house cinemas, I imagine, and a TV showing today would seem highly unlikely as the key scene, a commonplace in the lives of many children and hardly shocking in itself, would seem unpalatable in today's more censorious climate.A touching, poignant movie in which subtitles are often superfluous, but with much more to say for itself than this brief synopsis can convey. Well worth a look if you ever get the chance.

This film might not be to everyone's taste, it is slow moving but like all good things it is worth seeing for the visual impact of the scenery alone. The film revolves primarily around two girls and their interaction between each other and their community. One girl(Unn) is set apart from the rest of her peer group, a loner who is befriended by Siss. As the story unfolds you gain an insight into Unn's character, after sharing a secret with Siss, instead of going to school the next morning Unn wanders off into the snow and disappears. I won't give away the ending of the film, but it is beautifully shot, there are a lot of allegorical references, and the continuity is superb. definitely one for your collection

This film don't look like anything else. It is very slow moving, almost boring, and most of the pictures are close-ups of not very expressive faces. It's set in a very cold and very remote Norwegian mountain area in the thirties - not the most amusing place in the world. But very decent indeed. And then something starts sparkling. The two 12 year old girls meets a frosty evening, it is the first time that the kind and completely ordinary Siss visits the outsider Unn, who lives alone with her aunt. Unn shows to be an outsider indeed, having her room decorated by posters of pin-up girls , and soon suggest, that they take off their clothes. After doing that, Unn cries and admits, that she will not be let into Heaven, when she dies.Siss promise to keep Unns special feelings a secret. The very next day Unn dies in the big ice palace (a frozen waterfall in the nearby river)- nobody knows, if it was an accident or suicide, but Siss is left with feelings of guilt. What she really thinks, and what other people think, is not quite obvious. But this strange film is fascinating in its own odd way. There is some nudity and scary scenes, but that won't offend any minors, because they would be bored away long before it starts.