An ingeniously dry and bittersweet comedy about that 1940s and '50s research.
Overview
Swedish efficiency researchers come to Norway for a study of Norwegian men, to optimize their use of their kitchen. Folke Nilsson (Tomas Norström) is assigned to study the habits of Isak Bjørvik (Joachim Calmeyer). By the rules of the research institute, Folke has to sit on an umpire's chair in Isak's kitchen and observe him from there, but never talk to him. Isak stops using his kitchen and observes Folke through a hole in the ceiling instead. However, the two lonely men slowly overcome the initial post-war Norwegian-Swede distrust and become friends.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
A prime piece of comic anthropology.
What starts as a satire of the methodical, modernity-seeking society in Sweden ends as a heartwarming dramatic comedy in Norway.
A thoroughly charming oddity. And, in the end, a moving one, too.
Kitchen Stories is so subtle that many viewers will not be aware that it's screamingly funny.
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