The Reel Review
Soon after Nazi Germany’s 1940 invasion of Norway, accountant Gunnar Sønsteby joins the resistance movement, ultimately becoming the leader of The Oslo Gang, the nation’s dominant group of saboteurs. Sjur Vatne Brean and Erik Hivju star in this war biopic about Norway’s most decorated WWII hero.
Framed by an elder Sønsteby (a terrific Erik Hivju) speaking to a present-day group of students, popular Norwegian action director John Andreas Andersen (The Burning Sea, The Quake) shows surprising restraint in letting flashbacks tell the story in a straightforward, non-sensational manner. The saboteurs bomb a Nazi processing center that is to send thousands of Norwegian teenagers to fight for the Nazis. They bomb a weapons factory where the Nazis forced workers to build bombs for them, and later, they assassinate leading Nazi officials and their Norwegian sympathizers. The story does not shy away from the gruesome torture methods of the Nazis.
Our emotionally-conflicted war hero is shown as a remarkably ordinary man who did extraordinary things and who was never caught due to his meticulous attention to detail. His acts of sabotage are not glamorized, and the low-key drama may be a little slow for some, but for WWII history buffs, Nr. 24 is one of the more accurate and fascinating depictions of the Norwegian resistance fighters. And it has an emotional gut punch of an ending.
REEL FACTS
• Norwegian resistance in World War II was more organized in Northern and Western Norway, which allowed the entire Norwegian parliament, the royal family and the cabinet to flee the country when the Nazis invaded in 1940. In addition to the sabotage depicted in Nr. 24, saboteurs also smuggled Norwegians out of the country and attacked German U-boats off the coast, assisting Allied Forces by sharing details of where U-boats were spotted.
• Norwegian actress Lisa Loven Kongsli, who plays resistance helper Gudrun Collett in Nr. 24, appeared as Amazon warrior Menalippe in 2017’s Wonder Woman and a couple of successive Justice League films.
• Erik Hivju also appeared in the 2008 war biopic Max Manus: Man of War, about another famous saboteur, Max Manus, who is also portrayed in Nr. 24.
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