Bitef

a member of NasjonalSamling or not and whether his mental abilities were impaired is a much-debated issue even today. Hamsun wrote about this experience in the 1949 Pâ gjenngrodde Stier (On Overgrown Paths), a book that is part memoir, part self-defense. To this day, Norway has not come to terms with Hamsun's political sympathies. For many Norwegians, including young people, his name still raises hackles. In 2007, several politicians moved for naming a street in Oslo after the writer, but the proposal was defeated after strong citizens'protests. Doubts about Hamsun Nedoumica linger in much the same way as with other ambiguous artists, such as Leni Riefenstahl in Germany and Zarah Leander in Sweden. This year is the 150th anniversary of Hamsun's birth. The Hamsun Center, which has cooperated in the creation of The Writer, will open in Hamaray, his birthplace. The cooperation has grown from the desire to combine forces and expand the boundaries of associative story-telling. The subject of Knut Hamsun, one of the greatest story-tellers of all time, is itself a boundary. If anyone deserves to be approached in an associative, nonacademic way, without political, psychological or intellectual analysis, it is Hamsun. The great postwar moral doubts, the tarnished literary legacy, the retrospective maligning of a lifelong contribution to humanist ideals, the utter collapse not just of an artist but a human being - all these are questions too weighty for just one generation to judge. Every truth is multifaceted and can even change with time. To what degree what he a victim of the occasionally excessive postwar moral canon? Was he caught up in a moralistic whirlpool with other famous persons from the "grey zone" in order to satisfy the public's need for a symbolic sacrificial lamb? What would his fate have been in a more stable world, a world that had time for dialogue and understanding? Clear answers will not be found to these difficult questions. Hamsum during his lifetime had little or no chance to speak for himself on these matters, and a valuable direct source of illumination was, sadly, lost. We can read his books, we can devour biographies, we can review court records, we can even revel in psychiatrists'daily notes, but none of these exhaustive sources will ever give us the simple answer to the question: what the hell brought him to admire Hitler? Not having clear answers opens the door the imagination, That is what the production is all about: Hamsun wakes from the dead and is allowed to speak about things great and small, about everything and nothing, just like any conversation among friends. Maybe we'll hit a nerve, elicit a confession. Getting under someone's skin is always a rough task, but small talk is usually the best icebreaker. It's a beginning. SYNOPSIS: FROM ANOTHER ANGLE We want to create a production that is not full of clever commentary on Hamsun or his unexplained Nazi sympathies. We want most of all to portray an individual who, unfortunately, makes a false step that destroys his life and threatens to destroy all the good he has ever done. There is a radical difference between being loved and respected and then, all at once, being despised by everyone.

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THE WRITER