Movie Trailer: 'Nokas', A Heist Movie From The Director Of The Original 'Insomnia'

Just a couple weeks to go until Christopher Nolan's Inception opens (the reviews are already up) but let's take a moment to go back in time to 2002, when Nolan remade the Norwegian thriller Insomnia. The original was a great little piece of work, directed by Erik Skjoldbjærg. After Insomnia Skjoldbjærg hasn't done a lot — his 2001 adaptation of Prozac Nation looks like it was a serious career stall. But he's back with Nokas, a heist thriller based on a real-life crime, and the trailer is after the break. 

Twitch offers up the trailer. OK, setting aside obvious touchstones such as Heat, the footage here is sharp enough that I'm ready to overlook Prozac Nation and hope that Skjoldbjærg is really back on the horse. There appears to be a certain degree of fetishizing the criminals here that looks a little freakish — easy to understand making the 'bad guys' look awesome when it's, say, Ocean's Eleven, and less so when the film is based on a real crime — but that may be just the trailer.

Steal this synopsis:

In the morning of the 5th of April 2004, the greatest bank robbery in Norwegian history was carried out in Stavanger. Nokas is the story of this robbery, which took place at the central cash service in Stavanger. The film traces the development of the robbery from early morning on until the fatal shot that took police officer Klungland's life. The story is credibly narrated through details in an everyday manner. Routines and daily activities at the police station and the cash service centre, the unaffected civilians at the Cathedral Square who politely ask the heavily armed robbers if they may pass with their pram, and the robbers who restlessly get dressed, take a leak, kid around, and wait for the great event. And when the robbery is carried out, it's totally unreal for everyone. Even if it's actually taking place.

The robbery itself is the main character of the story, and it is illuminated from several angles in the course of the film, from the perspective of the police, the robbers, the central cash service personnel, and ordinary people. It's a credible and realistic, but fictitious reconstruction, the way it could have happened. The story is poetically and filmatically depicted, with sober use of various genre techniques.