King of Devil's Island

In line with the best quality European film productions, this Norwegian film does an extraordinary job at combining the prison genre with political allegory and historic reenactment. The film’s entire plot is set in 1915, in a correctional facility on an island in the Norwegian fjords. This reformatory is filled with young offenders and children whose only crime is to have been born poor. The island’s governor (played by European star Stellan Skarsgärd) directs this correctional facility with a firm hand, and the daily creed at this extremely cold institution is discipline, hard work and physical punishment. The indomitable Erling (played by a magnetic Benjamin Heistad) arrives at the reformatory, setting off a confrontation between the monsters of repression and those who are willing to fight for their freedom. —Carlos Reviriego, 4+1 Film Festival