– CANNES 2026: The darker and lighter sides of depression are depicted in the feature debut by Norway’s Eivind Landsvik, which should generate some enthusiastic buzz
Marie Ulven/girl in red in Low Expectations
Presenting five first features covering three continents at the 79th Cannes International Film Festival, the Directors’ Fortnight programmers may well have been hard-pressed to fail to include Norway among them. Indeed, and somewhat amusingly in light of the title, Eivind Landsvik’s Low Expectations represents a film territory currently enjoying some considerable and enthusiastic buzz.
That being said, certain states of depression are known to occur in Northern Europe, as frequently seen in its cinema throughout history. Where would Bergman or Kaurismäki be without their angsty gloom, one wonders. It’s almost become a brand, like Swedish furniture or Danish pastries, those Nordic blues, gaining a canonical build-up at film festivals like this one for close to a century now.
Landsvik’s depression tale centres on Maja (Marie Ulven, aka music artist girl in red, in her acting debut), a very gloomy twentysomething who’s lost the plot of her prodigious music career and moved back in with her mother, Anita (Tone Mostraum), who gets Maja a temp job as an assistant at the school where she teaches. A couple of pupils, especially Aida (Embla Berntsen), recognise the million-hit Instagram star, and are either nonplussed or starstruck. Her teacher colleagues, among them Johannes (Cannes stalwart Anders Danielsen Lie) and Oscar (budding stand-up comedy whiz Snorre Kind Monsson), try to invite Maja into some uplifting conversations on the impacts of Michael Mann’s crime classic Heat, initially with little success. Her main preference is to lie on her mum’s sofa, like a feeble pile of millennial wreckage.
Low Expectations will feel like familiar terrain to admirers of Joachim Trier, Dag Johan Haugerud and other proud compatriots as well as, given the school setting, the Skam TV series. Landsvik feels like a most welcome addition to the ranks of talents. His palette is rich with nuance and colour, including some warm, bright and hilarious moments (a scene involving a birthday card for the school’s immigrant caretaker is one of this year’s funniest, with some exquisitely crafted lines from the inimitable Helene Bjørneby; there’s also a memorable sequence in a clothing store of Larry David-like greatness). This depiction of pains, pleasures and possible redemption may provide a hint at any possible secret behind Norway’s current success story.
Already with his Cannes-competing 2023 short Tits (yes, one of his works shares its title with a Sparks song), Landsvik’s tender, low-key tone could be felt, and it’s calibrated here to fine effect for the long format. The hand-picked acting talent shines throughout, with Ulven carrying the main part to perfection. Her face shows and hides all expressions as required. One looks forward to the occasional future acting stint from her side, for more like this from Landsvik and for some better tomorrows for Maja. And quite frankly, there’s a whole lot here pointing exactly in that direction. So, from now on, it’s high expectations indeed.
Low Expectations was produced by Norway’s Maipo Film with co-production by Denmark’s Snowglobe. Its world sales are handled by Salaud Morisset.
