King of Devil’s Island

Bastøy is an island located in the Oslofjord, on which from 1900 to 1970 there was a youth custody centre for boys. The original plan was to rehabilitate and educate all the juvenile delinquents transferred there. Yet, it transpired that they were treated as labour force and abused both physically and mentally. In 1915, a rebellion broke out. King of Devil’s Island is a story based upon those events; it is also another picture in Holst’s career devoted to the description of the world of young boys. This time, the leading motif is constituted by the issues of growing up and fight for dignity and freedom. When a rebellious Erling is sent to the island, his attitude immediately instigates conflicts; in the long run, they also lead to the expected reaction to injustice.

Holst can be accused of many things. He is the one who made a movie full of films, with a classical narrative structure and visually spectacular, to cut a long story short: a typically ‘norwood’ one, both in a good and bad sense of the word. Nonetheless, in the context of a Norwegian film industry that so rarely touches upon historical issues it is a very significant picture. What is more, it also proves that Norwegians might well compete with Hollywood in many respects.