PFF: Pål Sletaune's NEXT DOOR (NABOER), starring Kristoffer Joner, Cecilie Mosli, Julia Schacht, An

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Pål Sletaune's psychological thriller Next Door (Naboer) is scheduled to be screened at the 15th Philadelphia Film Festival (PFF) on April 4th at 12:30 p.m., April 5th at 9:30 p.m., and April 8th at 10:00 p.m.. It had its world première at the Filmport 05 in Norway on March 10th of last year, and was released theatrically in Norway by Columbia TriStar Nordisk Film Distributors AS (CTN) the following day.

Next Door was produced by Spillefilmkompaniet 4 1/2 AS (Norway), with the support of Memfis Film International AB (Sweden - 1,000,000 SEK), Zentropa Productions2 (Denmark - 600,000 DKK) and the Norsk Filmfond (Norway - 8,000,000 NOK); it had a budget of 15,154,846 NOK (approx. 2.4 million USD).

The screenplay for Next Door was written by Sletaune. As was previously reported here and there on ScreenAnarchy, the movie stars Kristoffer Joner as John, Cecilie Mosli as Anne, Julia Schacht as Kim, Anna Bache-Wiig as Ingrid, and Michael Nyqvist as Åke. It was scored by Simon Boswell.

Here's a description of Next Door from PFF's 2006 Festival Program Guide: "A sexy and creepy Norwegian twist on Polanski's Repulsion that places a disturbed man at the other end of the apartment corridor from two beautiful but twisted women.
An apartment building elevator ride turns into an irresistible invitation for John (Kristoffer Joner), whose icy good looks hint at something disturbed beneath the surface. His girlfriend Ingrid (Anna Bache-Wiig) has just left him, and now he suddenly finds himself in the cluttered apartment of his neighbors: two coquettish women who claim to have heard everything that went down in his next-door bedroom. Strange, since he'd never met Anne (Cecilie Mosli) or Kim (Julia Schacht) before. Stranger still, Kim regales him with a sordid sexual tale and then, in a perverse seduction, plants some right hooks on his kisser. Perhaps this bizarre erotic encounter jars something loose in John, as he begins to have flashbacks that gradually reveal what really happened between him and Ingrid. The beautiful widescreen images ooze with sexuality and dread, a seductively creepy combination that echoes the best work of Polanski and Hitchcock. Director Pål Sletaune (Junk Mail), even while covering his protagonist in carnal blood, brings a decidedly adult sophistication to the proceedings - perhaps too adult for some sensibilities, as the film was the first release in Norway to receive an 'age 18 and over only' rating in seventeen years. [Note: Next Door - which was rated "18 år. Absolutt grense" by Medietilsynet on February 24, 2005 - apparently was the first Norwegian movie to receive that rating since Sven Wam & Petter Wennerød's Hotel St. Pauli was rated thusly by the now-defunct Statens filmtilsyn on December 2, 1987; however, numerous foreign (i.e., non-Norwegian) movies received that rating during that 17-year period.] The crisp pace provides numerous chills, while the psychological twists leave plenty to discuss in the lobby afterwards."

Next Door trailer (English subtitled; downloadable 10.5 MB MOV file)
Verdens Gang: Next Door stills (14 JPEGs)
Filmport 05: Next Door
CTN: Next Door
Nordisk Film International Sales: Next Door
ScreenAnarchy: Review of Next Door