A woman sings in a van. A man tries to learn a new language.

Director’s Statement

Basic Norwegian was originally written as a play in which both the actors and the audience would be in the car as the story unfolds. Adapting it to film, we were able to create a much more distinct visual style while still maintaining the constraints of the van-as-the-stage that was at the forefront of our minds when the story was first conceived. While a lot of the narrative details remain purposefully ambiguous, we want the sense of being in that car with the characters to linger with the audience.