Uncle Oscar

Uncle Oscar is a comedy/family movie that was showing in Norwegian theaters in 1997. The story is set in the 1970’s in the small rural community of Trøndelag, Norway. It is the burlesque and comical stories about the sheep farmer and bachelor "Uncle Oscar" by Torvald Sund that is here transferred to film. The film has a deliberate local sense to it, seen both in the retaining of the unpolished local dialect, through the manner of storytelling and the use of local actors. The figure Uncle Oskar has achieved a cult status in Trøndelag/Mid-Norway, and the books as well as the film have reached a wide audience here. Enthusiasts are still requesting the DVD of Uncle Oscar and regularly people call or e-mail tales of their unreserved pleasure gained from watching this movie. The film seems to reach an audience beyond the usual movie-goers, appealing to toddlers as well as old people.
There is something trustworthy and easily identifiable about the character of Uncle Oskar. He is the man that in good faith tries out his authoritative ideas of child-rearing on the eleven year old “Lad”, the narrator in the film, all the while courting the lad’s mother. Uncle Oskar has been accepted as a legitimate expression of the storytelling tradition in Trøndelag/Mid-Norway: the film has become part of the cultural identity in the small communities of Trøndelag.