Caught a lovely little Norwegian film this evening, Kitchen Stories. It takes place in rural Norway in the 1950’s. The retro look of the film is almost mocking of the period. From the opening with Swedish “home scientists” watching a typical housewife (well, except for the very large respiration measurement apparatus strapped to her back) work in her green kitchen to the matching green trailers that the scientists live in for their field studies.
The film centers around the interaction between Folke, a member of the Swedish research team, and Issak, a reluctant participant. Issak regrets joining the study when he found out that he would receive a small wooden horse as opposed to a real one (there was some word play that I think would have made that bit funnier if I new more about the Swedish and Norwegian languages). The researchers are supposed to only be observers of the single men’s kitchen activities, no personal interaction is supposed to take place. They live in the little green trailers that I mentioned, parked next to the volunteers home. Observations are made from high wooden chairs positioned in the corner of the subjects kitchen.
The humor is many times very subtle and very European. One beauty though is the empathy that you see develop between Folke and Issak. Slowly the barriers drop from in between them and they develop a friendship. It starts with small gestures and develops from there. It really shows the human ability to see another persons situation and the need for human interaction. “How can we learn about someone if we can’t talk?”, asks Folke’s college Greene who was “threatening the whole study” (their supervisors words) by drinking with his volunteer.
