Quisling - The Final Days

Such was the infamy that Vidkun Quisling earned as the head of Norway’s government during its occupation by Nazi Germany, his surname became a synonym for those who commit the most reprehensible forms of treasonous collaboration. Yet one reason Erik Poppe’s feature is so compelling is the director’s determination to dig more deeply into his circumstances and motivations. The result presents Quisling as not only a figure of great complexity, but also one with a discomfiting abundance of contemporary counterparts.

Questions of justice and accountability permeate this bracing account of events following Norway’s liberation in 1945. With Quisling awaiting trial, a pastor named Peder Olsen begins a series of meetings that officials hope will extract a measure of contrition from the defiant politician. This man of faith, played by Anders Danielsen Lie — best known for his work with Joachim Trier on films such as The Worst Person in the World (TIFF ’21) — will be shaken by his task. Played by Gard B. Eidsvold as a roiling cauldron of outrage and self-justification, Quisling maintains his bluster while concealing his fears about his fate.

Though these characters’ exchanges provide the film with great force, Lie and Eidsvold are well supported by castmates such as Lisa Carlehed as the traitor’s Ukrainian wife, Maria, whose devotion reflects the reverence that the anti-Bolshevist Quisling inspired in her country for his relief work during the Holodomor. Peppe’s bold directorial choices further ensure that this ostensibly historical film couldn’t feel more urgent.

JASON ANDERSON

Content advisory: violence, mature themes