Overweight Jockey Turns To Crime In Norwegian Comedy CHASING BERLUSCONI

Norwegian director Ole Endresen knows what he likes. And what he likes are drily absurd comedies of fringe players in fringe sports driven to extremes as they are pushed ever farther to the fringes of polite society. Endresen had a local hit with his King Curling following this particular path and he's looking to do it again with the upcoming Chasing Berlusconi (Jagten Pa Berlusconi).

The slightly chubby harness racer Bjarte does not get the good horses anymore, and is forced to enter the criminal path in order to keep menacing creditors at bay. A fatal choice of partners ends up in a failed doping attempt, and a consequent kidnapping of the top horse Berlusconi. A bloodthirsty hunting party consisting of two eager financial crime investigators, an unscrupulous horse owner, two Finnish debt collectors, and a particularly unorthodox private investigator called The Animal, are scrambling to find the horse and those who have gone off with it. Bjarte's alibi is falling apart like a rotten racers suit, and his wife's bipolar fluctuations don't help much. What are the odds that a chubby harness racer may outsmart them all?

Endresen's past in the commercial world - where he's done high end work for years - shines through here in the sterling production values, as does his skill with creating likeable oddball characters. The trailer looks like great fun, check it out below.