Your view on the film?

Im Norwegian.
Norwegian films love to make fun of countryside people, but its mainly not rooted in reality. I guess the countryside characters are made up by citypeoples romantisised, overexagurated ideas based on how some people was in the old days. If this movie was set in Oslo, the characters would be less like a cult society, and tougher and more direct.

Of course I didnt find the movie offensive, its a norwegian movie with fake characters. It dont try to tell me who I am, it tells me who the people in this fictitious town is.

My guess for why this film was so umpopular in Norway is because it was too unrealistic.

I in other hand LOVED it, because I like the mysterious mood and the psychological aspects in it. It drags you into a scary world you dont know, and its exciting to see if there is some light in the end of that dark tunnell.

Hoped this answered youn question from a Norwegians p.o.v.

Well, hopefully you are by this time far enough along in your dissertation (or finished) for this to be much help to you, but I was intrigued by the questions.

I am not Norwegian and have never been there. I'm not sure that I have a view on Norwegians. If I went by the movie, I'd have to say that it seems as if there's an enormous gulf between educated urbanites and ordinary country people--maybe even more than in the US--but I can't tell, and I assume some of the differences are exaggerated for the purpose of the story.

To me, the countryside people could have been from any rural area of the US midwest, where some people can't wait to leave when they grow up and others stick to the land and community and turn out much like their parents. I see the rejection of those who are different--in whatever way--as being a way of enforcing norms of behavior within a tight-knit society. I have the feeling that "big city" people with higher education and more liberal attitudes are probably viewed with suspicion, and are met with an expectation that they will reveal their ignorance of "real life" when they attempt to characterize country people as a group.

I really liked this film. The violence wasn't contrived or gratuitous. It was a necessary part of how the people in the countryside react to outsiders who seem too eager to pass judgement on them. The tension is kept up throughout the film. I especially enjoyed the subversion of the typical murder mystery story. You get all of the usual elements in a mystery, but everything is turned around on its head. By the end of the movie, it feels as if there has been an emotional cataclysm that has damaged everyone, even the investigator who will move on and away from this extremely screwed-up situation. This movie has stayed with me for a very long time.

This is a very fine film. The photography was excellent. It is intense and full of suspense. I never did guess the ending. That is unusual in recent films. The acting was superb. I feel this really reflects a global issue. There are areas in all countries where this could be part of their reality. Very sad that the Oslo officer became what he was fighting against. And that another youngster was sacrificed.

From Upstate NYS, and have never been to Norway. To me the film seems rather like a dark tragi-comedy about what happens to an isolated village when a horrible act simply breaks apart all sense of community. When revenge becomes the prime directive. When to be part of the ingroup one must be into murder. All the characters seem slightly bent and surreal even from the start and they never make a lot of sense, because, imo, their environment has ceased to make sense. As the review suggests, the film is a bit like TWIN PEAKS, but it's also related to Peckinpah's STRAW DOGS.
--Rayf

I think this movie was suspense-free and boring. The soundtrack was awful and it was just one weird sequence after another. I couldn't even stand the whole thing, after 3/4 I had to turn it off. I watched it, cause I like thrillers and the story sounded interesting, but wtf was that ...
There are a lot good movies from Scandinavia - altho I think most I've seen are Swedish - but this one isn't one of them imo.