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Unge viljer
Unge viljer
Directed by	Walter Fyrst
Written by	Walter Fyrst
Produced by	Arne Tellefsen
Starring	Martin Gisti; Karl Aagaard Østvig Jr.; Johan Hauge; Anne-Eline Christie; Einar Tveito; Karin Meyer; Alf Strømsnes; Borger Jahr; Victor Lindzén; Betzy Holter
Cinematography	Sixten Andersen
Edited by	Walter Fyrst
Music by	Thorvald Lammers Jr.
Distributed by	Norsk Film A/S
Release date	February 8, 1943;
Running time	93 minutes
Country	Norway
Language	Norwegian

Unge viljer (Young Wills) is a Norwegian film from 1943 written and directed by Walter Fyrst.^[1] It is about an upper-class girl and a working-class boy that join forces and become members of Nasjonal Samling (NS), Vidkun Quisling's far-right political party before and during World War II.^[2] Unge viljer is a "state political" propaganda film that purports to depict the difficult social conditions in Norway in the 1930s that led to the formation of the NS in 1933.^[3] This is the only Norwegian film produced during the war with a Nasjonal Samling ideology. The film premiered at the Victoria Cinema in Oslo on February 8, 1943.

Background

Walter Fyrst (1901–1993) was a film and advertising man that took the initiative in 1932 to form the Labor Array (Norwegian: Arbeidsfylkingen), an organization for voluntary work among unemployed young people.^[4]^[5] He was strongly involved in issues of unemployment and class struggle, and Unge viljer is largely about these issues.^[4] Fyrst was responsible for the script, direction, and production of the film.

The male lead role of Tor Jansen, the worker's son that falls in love with Liv West, the daughter of his father's employer, was played by Karl Aagaard Østvig Jr. (1925–1944). The amateur actor was the son of the opera singer Karl Aagaard Østvig (1889–1968), who himself played a lawyer in the film. The young protagonist was killed as a soldier on the Eastern Front the year after the film premiered, only 19 years old.^[4]

Plot

The film begins in 1933. In the home of Albert Jensen, a worker, he and his wife are struggling to give their son Tor a good education. Tor is a student at the high school together with Liv West, the daughter of Jensen's employer. Jensen tries to mediate during a labor dispute in the workshop, with the result that he is fired. Jensen's wife dies, and Tor has to leave school because his father cannot get a job. The father and son stand in line every day among thousands of unemployed people looking for work. The Marxist trade union movement persecutes Jensen, who eventually drowns himself in despair.

When West, the company director, discovers that Liv loves the son of a worker, he sends her away to an English college. Tor believes that she no longer wants to have anything to do with him, and travels doing voluntary labor service. He arrives at a new farm run by Bjørn Storhaug, a farmer who has been evicted from his allodial farm^[4] by director West. Bjørn advises Tor to clear and cultivate a new farm in Valdres, and he follows this advice.

After three years, Liv returns from England. She is now an adult, and she breaks ties with her father. After a long but fruitless search for Tor, she also travels doing voluntary labor service, where she finds Tor.

Cast

Martin Gisti as Albert Jensen, a worker
Karl Aagaard Østvig Jr. as Tor, his son
Johan Hauge as West, a company director
Anne Eline Christie as Liv, his daughter
Einar Tveito as Bjørn Storhaug, a farmer
Karin Meyer as Jensen's wife
Alf Strømsnes as Kristian, Tor's cousin
Borger Jahr as Anton, Tor's friend
Victor Lindzén as a communist leader
Betzy Holter as Mrs. West

References

^ Bjørn Sørenssen (2007). "Norwegian Film during the Nazi Occupation, 1940–45". In Vande Winkel, Roel; Welch, David (eds.). Cinema and the Swastika: The International Expansion of Third Reich Cinema. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 227.
^ Norske bilder: tekster fra prosjektets avslutningsseminar 9.–11. mai 1988. Dragvoll: Nordisk institutt, Universitetet i Trondheim, AVH. 1988. p. 108.
^ Fyrst, Walter (1981). Min sti. Oslo: Forfatteren. pp. 247–251. ISBN 8299075300.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Nerbøvik, Jostein (1991). Bønder i kamp: Bygdefolkets Krisehjelp 1925–35. Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget. pp. 176–177.
^ "Arbeidsfylkingen". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. 2014. Retrieved March 13, 2021.