Welcome to Norway (4 Stars)

Norway is a beautiful country. Very few people would argue with that. However, it's a beautiful country to look at or visit briefly, not a beautiful country to live in. That's the plight we see in this  film. 50 refugees from various African and middle eastern countries are sent to live in a newly opened refugee centre somewhere in northern Norway. The location of the camp isn't specified, but the northernmost real refugee centre is in Kirkenes, close to Norway's north coast. Here are the temperatures for the last 12 months.

That's hardly a hospitable climate for visitors from warm countries. It's no surprise that there are many refugees who run away from the camp. It could be worse. There have been calls for Norway to send all of its refugees to Longyearbyen on the Island of Spitzbergen, because there's a desperate shortage of workers. That's hardly surprising. Nobody wants to live there.

But let's get back to the film itself. A businessman called Primus has the idea to profit from the misfortune of others. He converts his rundown hotel into a refugee centre, because the Norwegian government will give him a grant of $12,200 per year for every refugee he houses. The problem, as he soon discovers, is that he can't just put the money in his own pocket. He has to spend the money on food, clothing, entertainment and Norwegian language courses for the refugees. The entertainment isn't just table tennis tables, as he hopes. The refugees expect 50" televisions and Playstations. Poor Primus will be lucky if he has any money left from the grant.

Can it get any worse? Yes. The government inspectors withhold the grant until the centre is in a fit state to live in. The hotel was never fully occupied, so Primus didn't know that the electric power supply isn't enough to keep all the centre's lights and televisions running at once. He needs an additional generator.

On top of it all, Primus doesn't even like foreigners. He frequently uses the N-word to describe not just the African refugees but anyone with skin darker than the average Norwegian.

The film is a delicious dark comedy. Refugees are a sensitive subject, in Norway and in other countries. People are either strongly in favour of accepting refugees or strongly against letting them in. There's no middle ground, so people argue about the subject. The film just calls on us all to stop arguing and sit together laughing.

I'm happy to say that the film is available on Amazon Prime in the USA. I wish it were also available in European countries, because the subject is more relevant in Europe.