The Bothersome Man

In the afterlife things will be nice. There will be Scandinavian modern furniture. That will be nice. There will be dinner parties. They too will be nice. There will be sex. That will be nice, but more importantly, it will give you a partner for renovation projects around the house. Jens Lien’s black comedy follows the adventures of Andreas who, unable to bear the coldness of modern life, ends it all only to find that the hereafter isn’t too different from here. Is he in Heaven, Hell, or just Oslo? Things are very clean, the colours are muted, the food is exquisitely plated but tasteless, and the bland pleasantries of workplace conversation have replaced the passionate embrace of life. However, Andreas dreams of finding a way out of eternity. Not far beneath the clever surface of this film, you will find a cry of despair that will be familiar to anyone who has ever spent more than an hour in an Ikea showroom.

Original, strikingly designed and extremely funny, the second feature from Jens Lien deals with suicide, existential despair and interior design in an impeccably tasteful colour palette of taupe, dove grey and azure.

London Times