''Oslo'' is a 2021 American

political drama A political drama can describe a Theatre, play, film or TV program that has a politics, political component, whether reflecting the author's political opinion, or describing a politician or series of political events. Dramatists who have written p ...

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a Terrestr ...

about the secret negotiation of the

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of interim agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995. They marked the st ...

. The film was directed by

Bartlett Sher Bartlett B. Sher (born March 27, 1959) is an American theatre director. ''The New York Times'' has described him as "one of the most original and exciting directors, not only in the American theater but also in the international world of opera". ...

and written by J. T. Rogers, based on Rogers' play of the same name. It stars Andrew Scott,

Ruth Wilson Ruth Wilson (born 13 January 1982) is an English actress. She has played the eponymous protagonist in ''Jane Eyre'' (2006), Alice Morgan in the BBC psychological crime drama '' Luther'' (2010–2013, 2019), Alison Lockhart in the Showtime dram ...

, and Jeff Wilbusch. It was released on May 29, 2021, on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

Plot

In December 1992, Mona Juul at the

Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( Norwegian or ''Utenriksdepartementet''; or ''Utanriksdepartementet''; UD) is the foreign ministry of the Kingdom of Norway. It was established on June 7, 1905, the same day the Parliament of ...

calls her husband

Terje Rød-Larsen Terje Rød-Larsen (born 22 November 1947) is a Norwegian diplomat, politician, and sociologist. Rød-Larsen came to wide international prominence as a key figure in the 1990s negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords—the first-ever agreements ...

. Rød-Larsen, who is in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, goes to talk to

Yossi Beilin Joseph "Yossi" Beilin (; born 12 June 1948) is an Israeli politician who has served in multiple ministerial and leadership positions in the Israeli government. Much of his political career was in the Labour Party. He also served as chairman of t ...

. Beilin explains to Terje that the peace talks are at a dead end, because everybody demands everything at once, and Terje offers a new approach. An Israeli meeting a Palestinian on neutral ground. Mona Juul has a meeting with

Ahmed Qurei Ahmed Ali Mohammad Qurei (also spelled Qureia or Qurie; , ; 26 March 1937 – 22 February 2023), also known by his '' kunya'' Abu Alaa ( ), was a Palestinian politician who served as the second prime minister of the Palestinian National Authori ...

, the minister of finance of the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...

, in London, where Mona and Terje introduce him to Yair Hirschfeld, an Israeli professor of economics. The meeting is secret because Israeli officials were not allowed to talk to Palestinians. It starts cold but warms up and they agree to meet again. The followup meeting is held in a manor near Oslo, with Qurei and Hassan Asfour as representatives of the Palestinian government and Hirschfeld and Ron Pundak as Israel's representatives. The meeting starts formal and cold, but warms up over time and through socializing and smaller hiccups resulting in a first series of drafts for a Declaration of Principles (DOP). As neither Hirschfeld nor Pundak are Israeli officials, talks are about to end there. After some back and forth and Terje making unfounded claims that he would get an Israeli official to join the talks, Mona decides to break the secret to Johan Jørgen Holst, the Norwegian minister of foreign affairs, who facilitates a meeting with Uri Savir from the Israeli foreign ministry to review the DOP. This meeting starts very aggressive with Savir and Qurei accusing each other of terrorism and murder, but again warms up over time with Savir expressing willingness to give up the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

and

Jericho Jericho ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Jericho Governorate. Jericho is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It had a population of 20,907 in 2017. F ...

―a city 20 miles outside of Jerusalem―to the Palestinians as an autonomous region. Uri Savir then presents the result to Joel Singer, the legal adviser of the

Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (; ) is one of the most important Cabinet of Israel, ministries in the Government of Israel, Israeli government. The ministry's role is to implement Israel's foreign policy, and promote economic, cultural ...

, who meets with the group to finalize the document with official backing. Instead of finalizing the document, it almost leads to a breakup of the talks over Singer's attempts to rewrite the document. At the request of Hirschfeld, Mona finally breaks her "facilitate only" doctrine and gets involved. She can defuse the situation by sharing her own story about the conflict, which is hinted at by flashbacks throughout the movie. After that, the Oslo Accord is meant to be finalized through a telephone conference between

Shimon Peres Shimon Peres ( ; ; born Szymon Perski, ; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician and statesman who served as the prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the president of Israel from 2007 t ...

and

Yasser Arafat Yasser Arafat (4 or 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), also popularly known by his Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, Presid ...

. After some trouble getting Arafat, who is residing in exile in

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

, on the line, they manage to talk to Qurei, who speaks on behalf of Arafat and the rest of the government because he claims to be more proficient in English. After a long conference, they agree to accept each other's legitimacy and postpone the controversial question of Jerusalem, thereby finalizing the negotiation. The movie ends with a montage of archival footage of the events after the Oslo agreement, such as

Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; , ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the prime minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–1977, and from 1992 until Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, his ass ...

saying "We who have fought against you, the Palestinians, we say to you today, in a loud and clear voice: 'enough of blood and tears, enough'" at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

in September 1993. It also references

Rabin's assassination Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister of Israel, was assassinated on 4 November 1995 at 21:30, at the end of a rally in support of the Oslo Accords at the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv. The assailant was Yigal Amir, an Israeli law student and u ...

in 1995 and that the status of Jerusalem remained a sticking point, as well as the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada (; ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its Israeli-occupied territories, occupation from 2000. Starting as a civilian uprising in Jerusalem and October 2000 prot ...

starting in September 2000. Nonetheless, it still affirms the importance of the Oslo meeting and the dialogue to facilitate a chance for peace.

Cast

as Mona Juul, a diplomat in the

* Andrew Scott as

, Mona's husband and the director of the

Fafo Foundation The Fafo Research Foundation, also known as the Fafo Foundation or just Fafo (), is a Norway, Norwegian research foundation and owner of the research institute: The ''Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research.'' The institute conducts social ...

* Itzik Cohen as

, Deputy Foreign Minister of the State of Israel * Salim Daw as

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

of the

PLO The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinian people in both the occupied Palestinian territories and the diaspora. ...

Sasson Gabai Sasson Gabai (or Gabay; ; born ) is an Israeli actor. He is the winner of an Ophir Award, Asia Pacific Screen Award (nominated), European Film Awards and Jerusalem Film Festival in 2007 as Best Actor in the highly acclaimed Israeli film '' Th ...

, Foreign Minister of the State of Israel (credited as Sasson Gabay) *

Dov Glickman Dov Glickman (; born 22 December 1949) is an Israeli film, television and theatre actor. Biography Dov Glickman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, to a Hiloni, secular Jewish family. His History of the Jews in Russia, Russian Jewish parents Shlomo an ...

as Yair Hirschfeld, a professor of economics at the

University of Haifa The University of Haifa (, ) is a public research university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963 as a branch of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation as an inde ...

* Rotem Keinan as Ron Pundak, Hirschfield’s associate and fellow Israeli professor * Jeff Wilbusch as Uri Savir, the Director General of the

* Igal Naor as Joel Singer, legal adviser of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs *

Waleed Zuaiter Waleed F. Zuaiter (; born January 16, 1971) is a Palestinian-American actor and producer who has performed in on-stage productions in Washington, D.C.; Berkeley, California; and New York City, as well as several film and television productions. H ...

as Hassan Asfour, Qurei's associate and PLO liaison *

Tobias Zilliacus Lars Emil Tobias Zilliacus (born 30 September 1971) is a Swedish-speaking Finnish actor. He is best known of his role in the 2012 Swedish crime film '' The Hypnotist''. In 2015, Zilliacus appeared in British TV series '' Fortitude''. In 2020, ...

Jan Egeland Jan Egeland (born 12 September 1957) is a Norwegian diplomat, political scientist, humanitarian leader, and former Labour Party politician who has been Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council since 2013. He served as State Secretary ...

, State Secretary at the

Karel Dobrý Karel Dobrý (born 2 May 1969) is a Czechs, Czech film, television and stage actor. He is known for playing Liet-Kynes in the ''Frank Herbert's Dune, Dune'' 2000 miniseries, and Korba (Dune), Korba in the 2003 sequel ''Frank Herbert's Children of ...

as Johan Jørgen Holst, Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs

Production

In April 2017, it was reported that the play ''Oslo'' would be brought to the screen by producer Marc Platt. It would be adapted for the screen by the playwright J. T. Rogers and directed by

, the director of the Broadway production. In November 2020, it was reported ''Oslo'' had begun production in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. The film aired on

and stars Andrew Scott and

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds a 75% approval rating based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Oslo'' sometimes struggles to smoothly transition from the stage to screen, but Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott bring an engaging verve to this historical snapshot of high-stakes diplomacy." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film holds a rating of 54 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Oslo (film) 2021 television films 2021 films 2021 drama films 2021 in American television 2020s American films 2020s English-language films 2020s political drama films American drama television films American films based on actual events American films based on plays American political drama films Bold Films films DreamWorks Pictures films English-language political drama films Films scored by Jeff Russo Films set in the 1990s Films set in Oslo Films shot in Prague HBO Films films Israeli–Palestinian conflict films Political drama films based on actual events Television films based on actual events Television films based on plays