EVERYBODY HATES JOHAN 1st March 2024

 

Everybody Hates Johan is a Norwegian comedy of charm and wisdom.
The setting is a small barren island, far from most other Norwegians. The gross regional product appears to be wind. How the people make a living is a mystery, as we see no fishing boats. The weather has not made everyone kind: in fact, they mostly enjoy baiting each other, especially Johan and his family.
By the time Johan is about five, he is an orphan, cared for by his aunt and uncle. His only friend is the girl next door, Solvor. Their love affair will run long but not smooth, through more thick than thin. The adult Johan just adores lighting sticks of dynamite and lobbing them into the nearby bogs. No wonder the neighbours hate him.
It’s hard to describe the charm of this small but clamorous film. The beauty of the setting contrasts with the puny side of the people. Nature has not ennobled them. Johan is the constant victim of awful behaviour, which makes sure we are always on his side. The explosions take characters off the board with shocking regularity, so we don’t know who’s next – a good source of tension.
Woven through the narrative is a strong sense of goodness and love, such that it becomes a folktale and a saga – for once, a word that really does apply. There are characters who know how to love and characters who cannot find the generosity and forgiveness: that’s always a moving basis for a story. And every so often, there’s a loud bang. It’s a clever cocktail, a sort of Molotovian romance with nasty pockets of wind.