Is it true that the humor of the northerners is too gloomy?

Two brothers did not speak for forty years, and the plague threatens to destroy what is dear to them - their herd of competitive sheep. Blood, tears - and all this against the background of a gray landscape. But Hrutar, or "Sheep" - this is not a Nordic success story. This tragicomedy, whose director, Grimour Hakonarson, calls her funny and sad at the same time. "We call this gálgahúmor, which translates as" the humor of a gallowsman ", such humor is very characteristic of Scandinavia." But can someone else understand the humor of the northerners? Or Vikings, Scandinavians, Nords know only black humor, which is alien to the world viewer?

"Sheeps"

The movie "Sheeps" can become one of the most successful and highly rated Nordic films in history.

After receiving the prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the picture will be launched in a month's rental in more than forty countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy and others. It is also a candidate for an Oscar award from Iceland.

Absence of comedies

But "sheep" are in this case apart. Swedish producer Gurun Giddings, who lives in Los Angeles, says her phone has been torn from calls since 2010 - people are waiting for Scandinavian talent. But even Giddings, known in the world as the "Scandinavian whisperer" for her ability to push the Scandinavian countries to the big screen in Hollywood, admits that when it comes to comedy, one can not even expect anything from Scandinavia. "We are known as dark and depressed," she said. "Our comedies will look exactly the same."

Black as coal

The global phenomenon of the Nordic Nuar was born with the appearance on the screens of the original Swedish film "Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" in 2009. More than six million tickets were sold for this film. Then came "Wallander", "Murder", "Bridge" and political thriller "Government". Hollywood capitalized the Swedish horror film "Let Me In", and even the family masterpiece "Cold Heart" is based on the Scandinavian myth.

The next candidate for the remake is the series "Occupied", which was recently shown on Norwegian television. It tells the fictional story of the Russian occupation of Norway. Stockholm studio Yellowbird productions is responsible for this series, as well as for "Wallander" with "Girl with a dragon tattoo." But even the creative director of this studio Berna Levin describes the comic genre as a "tough nut". "This is the only sphere that we simply can not develop," she said. - We constantly need drama, because we are always described as harsh, confused and slightly rebellious.

However, we are experiencing such difficulties with the sale of comedies that I can not imagine that we would do something like that for the international market in the near, foreseeable future. And very sorry. Swedes and Danes are very fond of dry Anglo-Saxon humor, but nobody really cares and does not understand it. "

A matter of taste

Of course, recently there was one comedic success - Swedish "A hundred-year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared", but it was based on Jonas Jonasson's favorite best-seller. The Finnish film "Iron Sky" also came out around the world in 2012, as the director of the film Timo Vuorensola already had a global fan base thanks to the parody of "Star Trek", which he shot. However, "Iron Sky", a film about the Nazis living on the Moon, failed to make the critics laugh.

Television producer Joanna Karppinen is a partner of the A Finnish Film Affair program, which was created to globalize the local industry. She believes that subtitles are the greatest barrier to comedy in the international box office, because a lot of in comedies depends on time and pitch. "However, I would say that our national characteristics are also our deterrent," she said. - As a rule, we are very modest and extremely restrained. We do not play for laughter. " Also, one of the Finnish actors admitted that the Scandinavians are extremely "painful." "We spend an enormous amount of time in the far north, alone, in darkness, surrounded only by trees. It can end only in that we express ourselves in something crazy, for example in "Iron Sky" or in something much more serious, creepy, dark and depressing, as it happens in most Scandinavian films and TV shows. "