Sentimental Value directed by Joachim Trier
Having followed the career of the Norwegian director Joachim Trier since his debut feature film Reprise from 2007, I was excited to get the opportunity last week to see his latest film Sentimental Value. This film had its debut at Cannes in May this year, receiving a 19-minutes standing ovation. And it is truly a masterpiece! With his 2022 film The Worst Person in the World Trier got his breakthrough as an international filmmaker, but with Sentimental Value he writes himself into film history. There were moments in the film that reminded me of Bergman and/or Fellini.
The film opens with two scenes central for the story. It starts with an Oslo home that is the place carrying the history of several generations affected by historical and personal traumas. The next scene is of a theater where an actress is struggling with a breakdown before her opening night of a theater piece. These two scenes prepare you for the intricate story of history, memory, pain and expression through art, that will keep your full attention for the more than two hours the film takes.
The actress is Nora, one of two daughters whose mother just had died. At the wake, their estranged father who left the family when they were kids, shows up. Neither Nora nor her sister Agnes wants him around. He is trying to bring new life to his career as a filmmaker by trying to recruit Nora for the lead role in a film about his mother, their grandmother, who took her life shortly after WWII during which she had been imprisoned and tortured. Nora is not interested in feeling used by an absent, arrogant father. Agnes, who is a historian, investigates the historic records of torture and suicide during and after WWII.
Rarely has a family dynamic with memories, attempts to connect, pain and trauma been played out so genuinely as in this movie. All three central roles, Nora, played by Renate Reinsve (even better than in the Worst Person in the World!), her sister Agnes played by Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and their father (Stellan Skarsgård) perform with so much genuineness and restraint that it becomes a breathtaking drama. I would love to see the film repeated times, focusing on the performance and story of each one of the three at a time!
Rinus Baljeu, October 2025
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