Handling the Undead | We, the living

Three families in Oslo are shocked by the return of their loved ones on a hot summer day.




Since the death of her son Elias, Anna (Renate Reinsve) barely notices what Mahler (Bjørn Sundquist), her father, does for her. At the funeral home, Tora (Bente Børsum), an octogenarian, looks one last time at his deceased partner, Elisabet (Olga Damani). On her way to her lover David’s (Anders Danielsen Lie) comedy show, Eva (Bahar Pars) dies in a road accident.

While Oslo is sweltering under the heat, a storm causes a brief power outage. Weeping at his grandson’s grave, Mahler hears someone knocking beneath the earth. After digging him up, he takes the child home. At the same time, Elisabet returns to Tora’s bedside. Much to the surprise of David and their children, Flora (Inesa Dauksta) and Kian (Kian Hansen), Eva comes back to life in the hospital.

First feature-length fiction film by Norwegian director Thea Hvistendahl, Handling the Undead bears no resemblance to the zombie films of George Romero, undisputed master of the genre, and his disciples, any more than to the series Walking Dead and its derivatives.

Certainly, the undead that appear in this melancholic horror drama are lethargic and disturbing. The more the story progresses, the more their behavior becomes irrational and threatening. Paralyzed by pain, everyone struggles to recognize the dearly departed who has miraculously returned to life.

Evoking Songs from the second floorby Roy Andersson, with its twilight aesthetic and unusual atmosphere, as well as Directory of disappeared townsby Denis Côté, based on the novel by Laurence Olivier, with its slow and hypnotic rhythm, Handling the Undead is not unlike GhostsFrench series by Fabrice Gobert, adapted from the film Ghosts, by Robin Campillo. However, the latter was strongly influenced by Let the Right One Ina novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, magnificently brought to the screen by Tomas Alfredson.

It is therefore not surprising to find in the credits of Handling the Undead the name of the Swedish author, who signs the adaptation of his own novel with Thea Hvistendahl. After having delivered a powerful reflection on immortality and solitude by borrowing from the figure of the vampire, this time, it is that of the living dead that he summons. Heartbreaking like the resumption of Do not leave meby Jacques Brel, by Nina Simone, who haunts the film, the reflection on mourning and absence that this contemplative horror drama conveys boldly recalls the value of existence.

Handling the Undead is presented at the Parc cinema in the original version with English subtitles.

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Handling the Undead

horror drama

Handling the Undead

Thea Hvistendahl

Renate Reinsve, Bjørn Sundquis, Bente Børsum, Anders Danielsen Lie

1:37 a.m.
Indoors

8/10


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