Violent

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A young Norwegian girl tries to make a life for herself in this debut feature film by Andrew Huculiak of the Vancouver-based rock band We Are The City.  Dagny (Dagny Backer Johnsen) is a young Norwegian woman, who is trying to escape her small town life.  As she adapts to this independent lifestyle, Dagny has encounters with other outcasts, including Brent (Bryn Bowen), a man who claims he hasn’t slept for weeks, and Bengt (Tor Halvor Halvorsen), the somewhat insecure owner of the store that Dagny gets a job at. Violent is a film project by the members of the Vancouver rock band We Are the City.  The film shares a name with the band’s 2013 sophomore album and was initially intended to be a promotional music video.  The film quickly evolved into being a Norway-set narrative film, detailing a young woman’s encounters with many interesting individuals.  The film is divided into multiple chapters, each of which focus on one of the individuals that Dagny interacts with over the course of the film. Save for one sequence in the film, there isn’t really a literal reason for why the film is called Violent.  While the bulk of the film is a narrative drama, the film also features some very experimental and trippy elements, which makes Violent quite a reflective film in many ways.  In fact, probably one of the best moments in the film comes towards the end, through a conversation Dagny is having with her grandfather.  Altogether, Violent is a very interesting and somewhat unique film.8 | LIKED IT

Sean Patrick Kelly

Sean Patrick Kelly is a Toronto-based freelance film critic and blogger with a Bachelor of Arts in Cinema and Media Studies from York University. Since founding his site in 2004, Sean has shared his passion for cinema through insightful reviews and commentary. His work has also been featured in prominent outlets, including Toronto Film Scene, HuffPost Canada, Screen Anarchy, ScreenRant, and Rue Morgue Magazine.