Based on a true story: Norwegian winter, early 20th century. On the island Bastoy, located in the Oslo fjord live a group of delinquent, young boys aged 11 to 18. The boys daily, sadistic regime is run by the guards and the principal who bestow both mental and physical abuse on them. Instead of the boys being straightened out with education they end up being used as cheap, manual labor. The boys attempt to survive by adapting to their inhumane conditions. One day a new boy, Erling (17), arrives with his own agenda; how to escape from the island. How far is he willing to go in order to get his freedom?
It's the winter of 1915 at Bastøy, a boys reformatory on an island of the same name located off the Norwegian coast. The "Governor" as the warden is called, rules the institution by stripping the boys of any personal identity, and issuing physically and emotionally abusive punishments, all in order for conformity. While he uses much of the moneys provided to make his and his wife Astrid's life there more comfortable, his housefathers - the men overseeing each of the dormitories - handle most of the issuance of punishments. Erling and Ivar, two boys newly arrived, could not be more different than each other. While Ivar is somewhat naive and emotionally weak, Erling, who is there because he purportedly killed someone, is rebellious and strong willed. They are both housed in dormitory C, where Bråthen is the housefather and Olav the head boy. There has never been a successful escape in the nine years Bråthen has been housefather, he who has stayed in the position while many have come to and gone from Bastøy to promoted positions. Olav, who has been there for six years since he was eleven, will be released in three weeks, largely because he has obediently but quietly done everything asked of him by the Governor. Erling and Olav form an unlikely and somewhat uneasy friendship. Actions by Bråthen, which Olav has passively watched without doing anything, and Erling's example lead to Olav perhaps believing that although he will be soon be released, that following the rules may not have been worth it for the good of his immortal soul.
King of Devil's Island (2010)

A very straight forward, hard hitting, well acted account based on a true story of a boy's penal colony on a Norwegian Island early in the 20th Century.

That says it all. It is what it is, and there is the almost inevitable rebel and leader among the boys against the sometimes evil, sometimes indifferent adults who rule the group with false benevolence. You know who is right and who is wrong, and you follow the plot with a mixture of expectation and outrage. It's dramatic great stuff. Yes, been there and seen that somehow before, but it's severe and beautiful in its setting and intense and provocative within.

It might be interesting to compare this to more famous prison movies (the dubious "Shawshank" and earlier classics like "Birdman from Alcatraz") to realize how much this one is holding to a line of truth. As much as the events are extreme (eventually), the filmmaking is filled with restraint. Compare further to a movie like "Shutter Island" and you know that this one is practically a grey, subdued documentary.

And this is to its advantage. It's not a mind-blowing experience in cinema terms--it's just a really well done, focused, sensitive telling of a forgotten story of repression and survival and maybe, in the end, the every lifting human spirit.
This film tells the story of what happens in "house C" at a Norwegian reform school in 1915. Bastøy is a strict, prison-like environment situated on an island, and the conditions are very harsh. It was a different time when people had authoritarian inclinations about religion, child-rearing and delinquency.

The story hinges on three characters and their stories: the struggles of a newcomer to adapt (Erling, played by Benjamin Helstad), the moral dilemma of a long-term inmate who has succeeded in this environment (Olav, played by Trond Nilssen), and the housemaster who enjoyed this world far too much, despite the low pay (Bråthen, played by Kristoffer Joner). The other main characters include an abused boy and a self-serving headmaster. Near the end, the movie takes an unexpected turn as things get out of hand. However, I don't want to give anything away. Let's just say the ending might remind you of "Lord of the Flies".

Like Bastøy itself, the film has a brooding, trapped, isolated, cold and colourless feel. The director (Marius Holst) succeeds brilliantly in recreating this world and showing the moviegoer, in a spare and direct style, what an institution like this might have been like for the boys who had to stay there. I think much of the power of this movie is simply in recapturing this world in detail, including the hollowness of the constructs that allowed it to exist. I can't remember a movie where this has been done so effectively, although parts of this movie reminded me of "The Magdalene Sisters". I appreciated the director not dealing with this hastily, glibly, sensationally, explicitly, romantically or melodramatically. This is a deliberate, understated film.

We are shown a primitive, limited and non-verbal place filled with challenged and affectionless boys. I'm not sure how much character development you can have (without resorting to Hollywood stereotypes); however, still the director and writers succeeded in developing these characters incrementally by letting us hear their dialogue and especially by showing us their actions. The moviegoer has to pay attention though. I can't say I was moved by this movie, but I found it gripping and did come to care for the characters.

The modern human spirit sinks when confronted with the reality of institutions like this. Many countries are struggling to understand nowadays why they set up schools like this in the not-so-distant past. The film feels uncomfortably familiar. As we all know now, places like this were abusive institutions that provided a haven for small-minded and abusive men, including a few with pedophile tendencies. Bastøy was no different. I would like to hear the justifications of those who used to run these places, but of course few of them are around now. Of those who are around, few are willing to defend themselves. What could they say?

The direction, the writing, the cinematography, the acting — all of it was excellent.

Surely I am not the only one noticing that little Norway is producing rather good movies lately? Is anyone in the Netherlands producing movies of this quality? If so, I don't know who.

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