Kunsthall Oslo is pleased to present The Stone Wood Witches and three short films by the cult Norwegian film director Bredo Greve.
Friday 1st November 7pm, free entry: The Stone Wood Witches, 1976, introduced by the director.
Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd November: The Stone Wood Witches and three short films, see below for further information and screening times.
On Friday 1st November 7pm, Bredo Greve will be at Kunsthall Oslo to introduce the first 21st century showing of his suppressed 1976 feature The Stone Wood Witches [Heksene fra den forstenede skog]. The film has not been shown in public for sixteen years and Greve will address, among other things, the enormous opposition the film met when it was first released. The Stone Wood Witches has been described as an anarchistic fable; the film relates the experiences of a young woman from the Maoist milieu of the time who is inducted into the practice of modern witchcraft, set against the backdrop of 1970s Norwegian society. Many cinemas refused to screen the film on the grounds that it undermined “property and Chistendom”.
Greve also made a series of short films in the sixties and seventies that were similarly critical of contemporary society and in particular mankind’s modern relationship with nature. Operasjon blodsprøyt [Operation Bloodspurt], Vi er alle broilere [We Are All Broilers] and That Fancy Fur Coat of Yours show Greve addressing themes that remain relevant today.
Operasjon blodsprøyt [Operation Bloodspurt] from 1966 is visually inspired by Polanski’s short Two Men and a Wardrobe, but is at the same time a pacifist satire on the then-popular genre of military comedy. It stars the avant-garde poet Jan-Erik Vold, who plays a young man doing his best to dispose of an inconvenient dead body.
Vi er alle broilere [We Are All Broilers], made in 1972, draws parallels between factory-farmed animals and individuals in modern society. Greve said: “Civilised men live like broiler chickens and vice versa, and it is not likely to be pleasant for either of them.”
That Fancy Fur Coat of Yours, 1977, is an unflinching polemical contribution to the debate around the fur industry, shot guerilla-style at a farm near Oslo on commission for the European Committee for the Protection of Fur Animals.
Bredo Greve programme, Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd November:
1pm & 3.30pm
The Stone Wood Witches, 90 mins, 1976 (in Norwegian with English subtitles)
12pm & 2.30pm
Operasjon Blodsprøyt, 15 mins, 1966 (Norwegian language)
Vi er alle broilere, 23 mins, 1972 (Norwegian language)
That Fancy Fur Coat of Yours, 16 mins, 1977