Insomnia (1997 film)

Insomnia is a 1997 Norwegian thriller film about a police detective investigating a murder in a town located above the Arctic Circle. The investigation goes horribly wrong when he mistakenly shoots his partner and subsequently attempts to cover up his bungle. The title of the film refers to his inability to sleep, the result of his guilt represented by the relentless glare of the midnight sun. Insomnia was the film debut of director Erik Skjoldbjrg. The screenplay was written by Nikolaj Frobenius and Skjoldbjrg, and the soundtrack by Geir Jenssen alias Biosphere.

The film has been widely praised as a psychological study and seminoir. Roger Ebert of the Chicago SunTimes compared it to the Dostoyevsky novel Crime and Punishment. For the New York Times, Janet Maslin praised the principal performance by Skarsgrd and added that Mr. Skjoldbjrgs understated, elliptical direction keeps the material dangerous and volatile, with frequent small touches of the unexpected as Engstrom shows increasing signs of strain. When 17yearold Tanja is found murdered in the city of Troms, far up in the Norwegian Arctic, Kripos police officers Jonas Engstrm Stellan Skarsgrd and Erik Vik Sverre Anker Ousdal are called in to investigate. Engstrm is a police inspector formerly with the Swedish police who moved to Norway after being caught having sex with the main witness in one of his cases. Vik is nearing retirement age, and his memory is failing. ........

Source: Wikipedia