Review: Trigger (2006)

Director: Gunnar Vikene | 78 minutes | family | Actors: Thor Michael Aamodt, Elias Holmen Sørensen, Robert Skjærstad, Ann Kristin Sømme, Reidar Sørensen, Anneke von der Lippe, Sven Wollter, Adele Karoline Dahl, Eli-Anne Linnestad, Eivind Sander, Frederik Melby, Tobias Roald, Jonas Joranger Larsen, Julia Boracco Braaten, Maria Elisabeth Hansen

Scandinavia has a reputation to uphold when it comes to high-quality youth films. With ‘Trigger’ the Norwegian Gunnar Vikene knows how to live up to his origins. It is a compelling film that, despite its somewhat unoriginal point of departure, manages to captivate the entire playing time. Debutant Monica Boracco Borring has given an intelligent twist to the standard teenage story of a girl and a horse in her screenplay. The combination of various themes, such as fear, death, lies and the elderly, works out very well in this film.

Eleven-year-old Alise has been telling her classmates for a long time that she can ride horses and even tame wild horses. Actually Alise is a scaredy-cat who, inspired by her grandfather’s stories about the past, wants to pretend to be much better than she is. The girl is even terrified of horses, she doesn’t even dare to get close to it. A lie that starts small and even innocent, but an unexpected event entangles her in a web of her own deception.

Her grandfather has not been doing well for ages. He is a grumpy old man, who in one of the first scenes manages to evoke feelings of disgust in the audience. However, it is also clear that there is more to his gruff attitude than meets the eye. The viewer gradually finds out, along with Alise. The two family members grow closer and closer throughout the film. The story has been deliberately kept small. Because side plots and too many minor characters have been omitted, the focus is purely on the rescue of the horse by Alise and her grandfather and the developments that both characters go through because of this event. It’s great that this can be told in such a credible way in just 75 minutes.

At times, especially at the end, the film is so exciting that the viewer will be fascinated to sit on the edge of his or her seat, as if ‘Trigger’ were a fierce action thriller. The young Ann Kristin Sømme enchants viewers with her roguish look, but just as often frightened facial expressions. Hopefully for the promising actress it will not stop with this one role. The images of the beautiful horse are also very beautiful. ‘Trigger’ is specifically intended for young people, but adults will also undoubtedly enjoy this Norwegian film.