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The Bothersome Man / Den brysomme mannen
Year - 2006
Studio - Sandrew Metronome Norge
Stars - Trond Fausa, Petronella Barker, Per Schaanning, Birgitte Larsen
Director - Jens Lien
Writing Credits - Per Schreiner
Music - Ginge Anvik
Synopsis
Andreas (Trond Fausa) arrives at a lonely desert gas station, the only passenger on an old bus, not knowing where he is or why he is there. From there, a man drives him to a strange city, and gives him keys to a modern, completely furnished apartment. The next morning, he is directed to his new job, an accountant at a contracting company. His boss and fellow employees are all very cordial to him. He later attends a dinner party at his boss’s home, and meets Anne-Britt (Petronella Barker). He is attracted to her and soon they are living together. Although he has settled into a comfortable lifestyle, Andreas remains restless and confused.
At the office one day he is using a paper guillotine and he accidentally has his finger cut off. Two attendants drive him home, but when he removes the bandages, his finger has returned.
He secretly goes out with another employee, Ingeborg (Birgitte Larsen) and decides to leave Anne-Britt for her. But Anne-Britt reacts to the news without emotion, only asking him to stay until Saturday, when they have a dinner party planned. And when he reveals to Ingeborg that he has left Anne-Britt for her, she is surprised, explaining that she has similar relationships with other male employees at the company.
Depressed, Andreas goes to a subway station and throws himself to the tracks, where he is violently struck by several trains. But he recovers consciousness, his body broken and bloody. The two attendants pick him up return him to his apartment, where Anne-Britt only reminds him about the upcoming dinner party. Within no time, his body is entirely healed.
On the city streets at night, Andreas sees light in a basement room, and hears faint music. He goes to the room, and a frightened man asks him to leave. But Andreas sees a small crack in the stone wall, the source of the music sound. There is distant light in the crack and a pleasant odor. He later returns to the room with tools to break through the wall and get to the other side.
The noise of his jackhammer arouses the interests of residents in the area. Just as Andreas succeeds in breaking through, his hands grabbing a freshly baked cake in a room, the “attendants” arrive behind him, and pull him back. They send him home, then seal the wall. When he arrives at work the next morning, he learns that his job has been filled by another man. He is driven to a area where a crowd of people have gathered. A woman tries to explain to him that most people are happy in the city, but Andreas sits glumly quiet.
He is taken back to the desert gas station and thrown into the baggage compartment of the old bus. It takes him on a long bumpy ride, and he emerges into a dark and stormy world.
Trailer
The film does not overtly say that Andreas is in the afterlife. His suicide attempt at the subway station is also shown as the opening scene, so it may be that he is in a Groundhog Day type time loop.