The Norwegian New Wave starts (again) here, says director Marius Holst.

A few years back, Norwegian films like Junk Mail and Insomnia (later remade by Christopher Nolan) were causing a rumble at Cannes. A success that was hastily dubbed “Norwave” – geddit? Although, according to director Marius Holst whose low budget trailblazer Dragonflies is about to hit UK cinemas, that wave is taking some time to swell. He describes the washout as one of false starts with a boom in native film production plumping for rom coms, kids’ movies and, last year, “the first Norwegian horror film since the 50s”.

For Holst, it’s time to make films that “put the pressure cooker on and say something more universal about everyday situations”. Holst’s idea of everyday situations seems kind of different from the rest of us, though. Dragonflies closes in on an outcast couple, Eddie and Maria, whose fragile, pollen-dusted Eden is threatened by a malevolent visitor from the past. He burns down their barn, kills the neighbour’s dog and poisons Eddie so that he can seduce Maria.

“I always felt it was a story about two people who didn’t have much faith in themselves,” says Holst. “When the real world intrudes on the life you’ve created on your own - that’s always a real test.” It’s something the cast, three of Scandinavia’s acting elite, came to know well through a particularly smart move on Holst’s part, which made the tension zing both on and off camera.

Mikael Persbrandt wound up the outsider in the triangle, with his real life fiancée Maria Bonnevie paired with an improbable suitor. “It was emotionally tough for Mikael to play that, to see your girlfriend with another man,” he continues. And not just any other man either, the big bearded hothead of Danish cinema, Kim Bodnia. “There’s been a lot of problems in the papers with Kim, how he’ll be late in the morning, out drinking at night, getting into arguments… But he’ll do anything for the film,” avows Holst. “These people really went into this thing. It wasn’t like another job.”

All this to an alt country soundtrack, by none other than that great Norwegian 80s export, Magne Furuhomen of A-ha. “We never really sold it as an A-ha movie,” says Holst. Thank goodness for that. The new Norwave starts here. Skye Sherwin 04 July 03

Dragonflies, on selected release 04 July 03.