‘Everybody hates Johan’: this rare Scandinavian humor

‘Everybody hates Johan’

Address: Hallvar Witzo

Translators: Pål Sverre Hagen, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Ine F. Jansen, Paul-Ottar Haga, John F. Brungot, Trond-Ove Skrødal, Ingunn Beate Øyen, Vee Vimolmal, Hermann Sabado

Year: 2022

premiere: 18 August 2022

★★

Scandinavian comedy is always weird. There is something Martian in his humor, look at its greatest representative, Roy Andersson, the veteran cult writer whose cinema is absurd when it comes to caricatureizing Swedish society. ‘Everybody hates Johan’ It’s Norwegian, but it captures that spirit a little bit. The hero, whose name is Johan, lost his parents at a young age and died in an explosion as his profession, blowing up bridges during the war, became an obsession. The boy grew up and continued his parents’ hobby, and his games ended in tragedy. As a result, all the inhabitants of the town where he lives hate him.

Hallvar Witzø’s debut film talks about misunderstanding and social marginalization from a perspective as sensitive as those accused of vitriol. It’s also filled with surreal elements, lip-smacking local choirs, 70-year-old mares, arrogant postmen, a mighty hero who can raze an entire city, and lots of fireworks that go off when they shouldn’t. The director is responsible for arranging all these elements to create a movie. laughter comes from extravagance and a little bit of sentimentality. Poor John. It also thrives on landscapes and the harshness of the environment. In Titran, the village where the movie takes place, everyone is hostile and things never go well for Johan, so Johan will have to go into exile, go to jail and leave the love of his life in a wheelchair. Witzø will use this whole series of disastrous misfortunes to create something. very black jokes combined with rare (and very Scandinavian) moments of sensibility.