48/27
Armand, a 6-year-old boy, is accused of crossing borders against his best friend at elementary school. Norway’s official submission for the 'Best International Feature Film' category of the 97th Academy Awards in 2025. The feature debut by Halfdan Ullman Tønder, grandson of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullman, is a part-allegorical, part-naturalistic dissection of the 21st-century education and parenting system and its handling of an "unfortunate incident" between two 6-year-old boys. Renate Reinsve is the eccentric mother of Armand, the alleged perpetrator of said incident, and as she finds herself under scrutiny by her son’s teacher, the school administration, and the other boy’s parents, the film slowly descends into an interrelational abyss: a limbo from which no good can ever come. Ullman Tønder’s purpose and position are solid, as is his artistic expression, which is visibly inspired by the works of his grandfather, and perhaps also to some extent by Kubrick. And although the narrative as such sometimes seems uneven and the film is unevenly edited, Armand is in many ways a return and homage to pure cinema, for which it should be hailed.