1915. Tragedy plays out at Bastoy juvenile correction facility on a remote island off the Norwegian coast. Boys loose their names and are known by numbers. Sexual molestation is overlooked, food is withheld, heating withdrawn as human rights give way to the greater goal. In short, Bastoy is less a prison than a concentration camp for thinly dressed, 'maladjusted' teenagers.

Based on events that reshaped Norway's disciplinary code, King of Devil's Island is an astounding film which builds such incredible tension that weaker stomachs will find this more horror than drama. Which in part, it is. With the arrival of ward C19 (Benjamin Helstad), a fiery spirit whose first instinct is escape, life begins an irrevocable march toward change at Bastoy. Another lad, C1 (Trond Nilssen) has nearly completed his time. His place as head boy could belong to C19 if the latter learns to contain himself but the new arrival is not an easy fit. Rebellion brings savage rebuke from the commander (Stellan Skarsgard), yet rather than turn on C19, the rest of the boys stand behind the island's new, non-conformist leader.

What gives King of Devil's Island such force is the startling developments that reveal themselves one after the other: just when you think you know where the film is going, it leads somewhere entirely new. Confident direction from Marius Holst brings an incredible intensity to the drama that unfolds as the boys storm the barricades with varying success. Layered among these events is a treacherous teacher whose sexual proclivities are the commander's undoing. Yet it's the government's military response that is most shocking of all, hence the severe naval gazing that followed.

Paradoxically, King of Devil's Island is a haunting, beautiful film to watch. Shot in chilly blues and gun-metal greys, John Andreas Anderson's (Headhunters) muscular cinematography is beguiling in its visceral intensity. Likewise the ensemble performance from a terrific cast led by Helstad, newcomer Nilssen and veteran Skarsgard who commands attention as the outwardly upstanding, inwardly corrupted leader. What distinguishes the film from other kids-in-peril stories is Holst's handling of dread, rather than shock, to focus our attention on the bone-chilling fear that is life at Bastoy. No one does grim quite like the Scandinavians, and this leads the pack.

// COLIN FRASER



When Marius Holst’s film King of Devil’s Island screened at the 2011 Rotterdam Film Festival, the public debate that followed forced a re-examination of its subject’s history: in 1915, Bastoy, a prison island located in the fjord of Oslo, housed a very dark secret. It was a place where young men were subjected to brutal discipline, coupled with arduous labour in conditions that were inhumane. Holst wanted to make the film after meeting a former inmate and, after hearing about what happened on the island, was determined to reveal to the world how ‘evil grows in institutions sealed off from the rest of the world’.

Identity was stripped from the inmates the moment they arrived at Bastoy and they were given a number to replace their names. A young man, Erling (Benjamin Helstad), was sent to the island for a crime that is not specifically identified. Being a headstrong lad, he managed to make an impression on the other inmates and set a path for rebellion against the repressive system that used and abused the young men both physically and emotionally.

His almost immediate attempt to escape put him in the frontline for disciplinary action from the formidable guard, Brathen (Kristoffer Joner), who had his own evil agenda. He was also subjected to the hardline rules set by Governor Bestyreren (Stellan Skarsgard, recently seen in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo). The rigid rules were in place to exact conformity and rebellion was not to be tolerated. The brutal responses to Erling’s actions make for uneasy viewing and there are some pretty confronting scenes.

The performances are all excellent, as are the production values; the camerawork deservedly won the Best Cinematography Award at the Goteburg International Film Festival last year and the soundtrack is a treat, too. Collectively, these values make you feel as if you are on the island with the prisoners and hoping they manage to escape from their dire circumstances.

The end result is a drama which throws light on a subject that needed to be told and, in doing so, has probably made life a lot easier for those who are incarcerated on Bastoy to this day. Recent news reports state that it is now seen as a model prison which relies on ecological sustainability where the inmates work the farm and are able to participate in leisure activities during their time off. The end result is a system which has proven to lower the re-offending rates and a drop in the number of suicides and attempts to escape. It seems that out of a repressive system the Norwegians have learnt to adapt the process of rehabilitation. That can only be a positive thing.

// SALT
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