Hæ?

Rest in peace to the incredible Anthony Stewart Head (20th February 1954 - 1st June 2026)

Anthony Head RIP

Short film "CATILINA" will be screened in Zurich, Switzerland as part of XVI International Ibsen Conference. After the screening there will be Q&A with Tarjei.

Film will be screened on Wednesday 24th June at 18h at the auditorium of the main building of the University of Zurich.

During the last month's seminar at UiO Tarjei talked about the short film "Catilina" and his process while making it. Without spiling the film here are my highlights:

-He found inspiration in Agnar Mykle book "Lasso rundt fru Luna(Lasso Round the Moon)" and Karl Ove Knausgaard's books "Ute av verden (Out of the World)" and his fourth Min kamp book

-Originally his script was written with male main character named Agnar, but after casting all other actors he realized that the right actor for his main character is an actress

-He choose the play Catilina because he saw parallels between the character Catilina(main character of Ibsen's play) and the main character he wanted to create and parallels between young Ibsen writing Catilina and where he was as a person and an artist when he read the text

-He talked about having some trouble in film school because he couldn't limit himself in his writing

-The biggest impact the play Catilina had on him and the film is by inspiring him; the start of the play “I must, I must, a voice deep in my soul urges me on. I will heed its call with courage and strength for strength, for something better, something nobler than the present life”  became his mantra

-Short film is outside industry frameworks because of it's length. Film festivals rarely accept short movies longer than 30-40, and feature films shor---ter than 70; Catilina is 45 minutes long

-He was scared that he ended his career with this decisions, but he just found out about 2 year Art grant

-Deleted his social media because he is practicing being dead ( to better understand his decision, read Plato's "Phaedo", where Socrates says that "philosophy is the exercise to death". This is known as "art of death" and is practiced by detaching from material desires and focusing on wisdom and truth)

- Sees his film as a story about misunderstanding each other, because people see the world from different places. I quote: "The philosophical life and the real life, the ideals and the reality, can be experienced as irreconciled, irreconcilable dimensions. "

-Big fan of Ibsen ( thinks he is Dostoyevsky of playwriting), Plato ( Phaedo is referenced in film a few times) and Socrates

-He cried after finishing last Karl Ove Knausgaard book ( not because it was that good of a book, but because there is no more books to read)

-If he could change anything he would change its beginning and end😅

Tarjei talked to Tone Flaaterud about filming his debute film Catilina, his participation in this year's festival "Ibsen i mars", his love for Ibsen, what he loves the most about Skien and more in Varden's article.

«PILLION provides generous enough space for both full-blooded British suburban life and full-blooded cock far up the beak. Like life, yeah! »

Photo of Tarjei during the talk after screening of his short film Catilina in Skien.

Last week 1069 artists received a Norwegian State Artist Grant(Statens kunstnerstipend). Tarjei was one of them! He was awarded a 2 year working grant for younger/newly established artists.

The Norwegian State Artist Grant is a grant that goes directly to the artists. The grant is awarded from one up to ten years (342,193 kroner per year) or as an one-off grant, and is aimed at artists at different stages of their careers.

Photos from shooting short film Catilina in Skien from Varden's article.

After 57 sold out performances "skyt meg" has finished.

It's the last week of "skyt meg"

On Thusday, March 19, Tarjei did a seminar "Catiline" - From Bad Roman Conspirator to Bad Norwegian Drama Teacher at University of Oslo, Centre for Ibsen Studies. Seminar was in English and streamed.

Tarjei talked about his recent film about the making of a performance of Ibsen's debut play Catiline (1850). Introduction to seminar:

"Why would a filmmaker today use Ibsen's earliest play Catiline as a starting point to explore conflicts of cultivation and enlightenment, education’s purpose in society, and the soul's struggle with material and social distractions? How make a story from the Roman Republic into one at a high school in Skien in 2025? In what way was Ibsen's imperfect and immature work as a debuting playwright in nineteenth-century, influential to a film about hubris and transgressions place (or lack thereof) in contemporary Norway – and not at least, personally inspiring for an immature twenty-five-year-old, having his debut as a filmmaker?

It's the last week of "skyt meg"