The Bothersome Man is an unusual Norwegian film released in 2006. It was the debut of director Jens Lien and shows an interesting view of life in a soulless city. It is of course in Norwegian but I don’t really mind subtitles. I saw it around a year ago late at night on BBC1 and I don’t think I ever would have come across it other wise. I’m very glad that I did though so I wanted to make sure other people could find out about it.

The film’s protagonist Andreas finds himself in a city with little idea of how he got there. He has is given all the things he needs, an apartment, a job and a girlfriend, yet something is missing and nobody else seems to notice it. The film follows him in his attempt to escape the sterile city and this materialistic life style. Much of The Bothersome Man is metaphoric so I suppose it can be interpreted as you will. Personally it reminds me a lot of the Radiohead track Fitter Happier.

Fitter Happier – Radiohead

Sigur Rós are one of those bands that have been around for about a decade, are known around the world, and yet are hard to find out about. The Icelandic, ambient rock band have produced five full length albums so far between 1997 and 2008 as well as Rímur and Hvarf/Heim. Although few tracks are in English, a lot of them aren’t in true Icelandic either but in a term they coined called Hopelandic. This involves non-sense words and Jónsi Birgisson’s voice is used as an instrument in itself more than anything else. Another interesting instrumental direction is Jónsi’s use of a violin bow on electric guitar to create a warm background drone which really adds depth to their ethereal sound. Sigur Rós released a DVD called Heima (home) in 2007 which followed them on their free, homecoming, alfresco tour around Iceland. It features some amazing footage and is worth getting a copy of it albeit a bit dear.