"I believe audiences today need films that move their hearts and stimulate their minds. I want to give people experiences on the screen where they can recognize their own lives and feelings, and can leave the cinema feeling they have got something of relevance. The fact that 'The Other Side of Sunday' has been a sell-out success all over Norway hopefully signals that we have reached our goal." -Berit Nesheim
News of Norway, issue 2, 1997
The new Norwegian film The Other Side of Sunday, directed by Berit Otto Nesheim, has been nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film. The film delightfully portrays how a young girl, brought up in a strictly disciplined household, awakens to her identity and matures. The year is 1959. In a small village in Norway, the priest’s daughter, Maria, does not want to be the "church" girl. She just wants a normal life like the other girls of the village. She wants to wear colorful dresses, go out with boys and put make-up on. Maria’s confidant is the verger Mrs. Tunheim, who, unlike the other church wives, is prepared to acknowledge that she actually has a body below her neck. Maria and Mrs. Tunheim’s attempts to avoid ending up like the others follow two very different courses. The Other Side of Sunday is a beautiful, humorous, warm and sincere film about growing up when almost everything was forbidden. But the film is also ageless. It is about us all, it is about never letting one’s life be dictated by intolerance and denial, but treasuring one’s own self-respect and following one’s own course towards happiness and true fulfillment. The Other Side of Sunday will be shown at the Washington, D.C. International Film Festival (Filmfest DC), which runs from April 23 to May 4. Filmfest DC brings the finest in contemporary world cinema to the U.S. capital. So far the Film Festival has introduced over 800 feature and short films from more than fifty countries. For information, call: 202-724-5613.