Mennesker i solen is Norway’s first disaster movie, but in true Norwegian style, it is a comedy as well. The apocalypse is coming… time for a tan!
Most disaster movies are a 
type of fantasy or sci-fi films, as they rarely have much to do with actual disasters. This particular movie is based on disasters from the Bible, which doesn’t make it less fantasy; grass hopper invasions, floods, rain of blood, thunderstorms, Earth cracking up, etc. Based on a script by the famous Swedish comedian Jonas Gardell, an open Christian, the movie is about a group of camping tourists who are enjoying the summer. When most of the tourists gather a bit away in order to celebrate midsummer, two couples remain behind in order to celebrate in more calmer ways. However, soon strange and potentially dangerous natural phenomena occurs. The party however, refuse to give up and continues as if nothing happened.
“On a deeper level, [the movie] is about our generation and its selfishness, and our ability to discover wether there is anything bigger than ourselves out there” director Per-Olav Sørensen says to the newspaper Dagbladet. Gardell adds: “The funny thing is that if the heavens split open and Jesus came back to us today, we would be angry. Not because it was doomsday, but because we’re on vacation and have paid for our summer houses. Our generation takes it for granted that we have the right to live our lives as we want to live them.”
Labelled as “a traditional summer comedy, except the world goes under”, Mennesker i solen is not just a doomsday comedy but also Norway’s first disaster movie. CGI effects have been created by the Norwegian studio that made digital effects for such successes as Max Manus, Dead Snow and The Troll Hunter.
Mennesker i solen (literal translation; People in the sun), which was a theatre play by Jonas Gardell originally staged in 1997, stars Ghita Nørby, Ingar Helge Gimle, Kjersti Holmen, Ane Dahl Torp and Jon Øigarden. Director Sørensen also directed the Norwegian stage version in Oslo in 1999. The movie opens in theatres in Norway on March 4, 2011.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJlTh6S7R8w]