''Kimen'' (The Seed) is a Norwegian film from 1974 directed by

Erik Solbakken Erik Solbakken (born 17 November 1984) is a Norwegian television presenter. Solbakken hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 together with Haddy Jatou N'jie and Nadia Hasnaoui. Career Solbakken trained as a journalist at Volda University Col ...

. It starred

Kjell Stormoen Kjell Stormoen (24 March 1921 – 22 October 2010) was a Norwegian actor, scenographer and theatre director. An actor and director at Rogaland Teater in the early 1950s, he was later assigned as actor to the theaters Riksteatret, Den Nationale ...

Svein Sturla Hungnes Svein Sturla Hungnes (born 21 March 1946) is a Norwegian actor, theatre director, and instructor. Hungnes studied at the Norwegian National Academy of Theatre from 1965 to 1970, and had several small roles at Nationaltheatret during that time. Af ...

Ragnhild Michelsen Ragnhild Michelsen Steen (23 June 1911 – 30 September 2000) was a Norwegian actress. Life Ragnhild Michelsen was born in Narvik on 22 June 1911, the daughter of Carl F. Michelsen and Clara Kokmann. Her first stage experience came while attend ...

, Helle Ottesen,

Helge Jordal Helge Jordal (born February 17, 1946) is a Norwegian actor. He was appointed a Knight of the Royal Order of St. Olav in 2006 for his long career as an actor both on screen and on stage, and for his position as a "grand old man" among Norwegian ac ...

, and Ragnhild Hilt. The film was based on the 1940 novel of the same name by

Tarjei Vesaas Tarjei Vesaas (20 August 1897 – 15 March 1970) was a Norwegian poet and novelist. Vesaas is widely considered to be one of Norway's greatest writers of the twentieth century and perhaps its most important since World War II. Vesaas' work is c ...

.Nasjonalbiblioteket: Norsk filmografi: ''Kimen''.
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Plot

Some people are living on a green island in the ocean to the west. In this simple and earthy environment, they live in harmony with each other. It seems to be a small community in balance. However, when a mentally unstable stranger comes to the island, this balance is suddenly destroyed. The stranger causes a young girl's death, and the death has a strong impact on the island community. Fear and

mass hysteria Mass psychogenic illness (MPI), also called mass sociogenic illness, mass psychogenic disorder, epidemic hysteria or mass hysteria, involves the spread of illness symptoms through a population where there is no infectious agent responsible for c ...

affect the population. The drama in the film highlights themes such as

crowd psychology Crowd psychology (or mob psychology) is a subfield of social psychology which examines how the psychology of a group of people differs from the psychology of any one person within the group. The study of crowd psychology looks into the actions ...

and an individual's responsibility for collective misdeeds.

Reception

When it was released, the film received good reviews from Gunvor Gjessing at ''

Aftenposten (; ; stylized as in the masthead) is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation as well as Norway's newspaper of record. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 daily copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen ...

'' and Bjørn Granum at ''Arbeiderbladet''. Among other things, Gjessing wrote that "The film's most striking feature is that has a clear plot that is easy to grasp. It ought to appeal to many because here there is quite a lot to think about: outbreaks of hidden destructive forces, mass hysteria,

herd behavior Herd behavior is the behavior of individuals in a group acting collectively without centralized direction. Herd behavior occurs in animals in herds, packs, bird flocks, fish schools, and so on, as well as in humans. Voting, demonstrations, ...

, and individual responsibility." Among other things, Granum wrote that "We've got a promising new filmmaker in Norway. After several years of short films, Solbakken has come out in full bloom with his feature film debut." ''Kimen'' received a " die throw" of three from ''

Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

'' in 2003.Filmen. 2003. ''Dagbladet'' (June 1).

Cast

References

External links

*
Nasjonalbiblioteket: Norsk filmografi: ''Kimen''.
Norwegian drama films 1970s Norwegian-language films 1974 films Films based on Norwegian novels Films based on works by Tarjei Vesaas 1974 drama films {{Norway-film-stub