''King of Devil's Island'' (french: Les Révoltés de l'île du Diable), ( no, Kongen av Bastøy) is a 2010 French-Norwegian

action drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-gen ...

directed by

Marius Holst Marius Holst (born 15 January 1965) is a Norwegian filmmaker, a producer and a screenwriter. Life Film school student Marius Holst studied at the London International Film School. In 1990, his diploma film was nominated for the Amanda Award for ...

.Twitchfilm.com – Second trailer for Marius Holsts youth prison drama King of Devil's Island
Retrieved 2. January 2010 The film premiered in Norway on 17 December 2010 and was next shown at the international film festivals of Sweden (January 2011), Rotterdam (February 2011)IMDb entry
Retrieved 2 February 2011 and during the

Lübeck Nordic Film Days The Lübeck Nordic Film Days _(german:_Nordische_Filmtage_Lübeck)_is_a_ _(german:_Nordische_Filmtage_Lübeck)_is_a_film_festival">/ref>_(german:_Nordische_Filmtage_Lübeck)_is_a_film_festival_for_movies_from_the_Nordic_countries.html" ;"title="fil ...

2011. The story is based on true events that occurred at Bastøy Prison in Norway.Official site for the production
Retrieved 2 February 2011 Shooting for ''King of Devil's Island'' took place mostly in

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

Plot

At the Bastøy prison island for youths, the newest arrival, Erling "C19", soon becomes friends with Olav ("C1"). Under the rule of

warden A warden is a custodian, defender, or guardian. Warden is often used in the sense of a watchman or guardian, as in a prison warden. It can also refer to a chief or head official, as in the Warden of the Mint. ''Warden'' is etymologically identic ...

Håkon, Erling comes to terms with the harsh winter, the mistreatment by the staff, and the hated unit mandager Bråthen. Olav sees Bråthen molesting "C5", Ivar, a timid, shy boy in the laundry room. When he raises this with the warden, the boys are severely punished and C5 is reassigned to duties far away from Bråthen. However, after hearing that Bråthen expects him to be back in the laundry room later, Ivar drowns himself in the freezing waters on the beach. Bråthen is apparently fired, to the overwhelming delight of the other boys. Olav is paroled and is planning to leave, but on the way to the departing boat, walks past Bråthen, who had been sent away on a shopping trip until Olav, the only witness to Ivar's rape, had left the island. Olav and Erling attack Bråthen in a fit of rage and they are locked in freezing solitary confinement as punishment. They are freed by Bjarne, one of the few Bastøy boys who has remained on the island as a caretaker. Olav again pursues Bråthen, and the attack inspires a mass uprising. The boys ransack the prison and drive the staff away. Bråthen is repeatedly hanged in a barn, released and then beaten severely. The barn is in is set ablaze, but Erling drags him to safety. A

navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

ship is brought in and violently puts down the uprising. Olav and Erling manage to escape across a frozen

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...

back to the mainland, but Erling falls through a gap in the ice close to shore and quickly freezes to death. Olav is shown later, older, as a member of a ship's crew, watching as they pass Bastøy island.

Cast

Stellan Skarsgård Stellan Skarsgård (, ; born 13 June 1951) is a Swedish actor. He is known for his collaborations with director Lars von Trier appearing in ''Breaking the Waves'' (1996), ''Dancer in the Dark'' (2000), ''Dogville'' (2007), ''Melancholia'' (2011 ...

as Håkon *

Benjamin Helstad Benjamin Helstad is a Norwegian actor and musician mostly known for '' King of Devil's Island'', '' Body Troopers'' and ''Permafrost''. He has also done the Norwegian dubbing for several American films, including Disney's ''Fillmore'', ''Jungle ...

as Erling "C19" *

Trond Nilssen Trond Nilssen (born 22 August 1990) is a Norwegian actor. He is best known for playing Olav/C-1 in '' Kongen av Bastøy'' which won him an Amanda Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Film Awards and nominations References External ...

as Olav "C1" *

Kristoffer Joner Kristoffer Joner (born 19 September 1972) is a Norwegian actor. He is best known for his roles in '' Villmark'' and ''The Man Who Loved Yngve''. He was a part of Rogaland Teater when he was 14 years of age until his early 20s. He was one of the f ...

as Bråthen *

Ellen Dorrit Petersen Ellen Dorrit Petersen (born 4 December 1975) is a Norwegian actress. Life and career Petersen was born in the small town of Tau but moved to Oslo for her professional studies. She attended the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. She was active w ...

as Astrid * Magnus Langlete as Ivar "C5"

Historical background

Although it is set in winter, the film is a fictionalized retelling of a rebellion among the youth at the Bastøy Reform School in May 1915. The reformatory was located on Bastøy Island in the

Oslo fjord The Oslofjord (, ; en, Oslo Fjord) is an inlet in the south-east of Norway, stretching from an imaginary line between the and lighthouses and down to in the south to Oslo in the north. It is part of the Skagerrak strait, connecting the Nor ...

south of

Horten is a town and municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway—located along the Oslofjord. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Horten. The municipality also includes the town of Åsgårdstrand an ...

municipality in the county of

Vestfold Vestfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in Eastern Norway. In 2020 the county became part of the much larger county of Vestfold og Telemark. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it bordered th ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The Norwegian government purchased the island in 1898 for 95,000 kroner, and the reformatory opened in 1900.

References

External links

* *
Review
at BeyondHollywood.com

at The London Film Review {{DEFAULTSORT:King of Devil's Island 2010 films 2010s Norwegian-language films 2010 action drama films Norwegian action drama films Films directed by Marius Holst Films shot in Estonia Drama films based on actual events