He slept with a hand grenade under his pillow and a suitcase full of explosives. The resistance man Gunnar Sønsteby was the Gestapo’s most wanted person, but he managed to avoid the Germans during the war years. Gunnar Sønsteby was born in Rjukan in 1918 and died in Oslo in 2012. Photo: News player “No. 24” The film follows Sønsteby from the time he volunteers for resistance work after the German attack on Norway on 9 April 1940, until he is later recruited into illegal work by Max Manus. The film, which has been named “No. 24”, after one of the nicknames for Sønsteby, will be seen on Norwegian screens in the autumn. The film has its cinema premiere on 30 October. Rørt Skodespelar Erik Hivju thinks it was a big moment when he was asked to play the older Gunnar Sønsteby. He was also moved when he read the script for the film. – I am very fond of war history and war films. It has followed me all my life, for one reason or another. But this film is a bit different, because it is about a real person. Erik Hivju as the older Gunnar Sønsteby in the machine hall at Vemork. Photo: Lars Tore Endresen Hivju quickly decided to create his version of Sønsteby. – I can’t be him. I have to experience him through me. Hivju believes the film is for the current generation, and hopes that the young will come to see it. – I hope that it hits them, and shows not only hope, but also the brutality of war. From Rådebank to war hero Sjur Vatne Brean, perhaps best known from the news series “Rådebank”, plays the younger Sønsteby in the film. Sjur Vatne Brean as the younger Gunnar Sønsteby during filming at Rjukan cinema. Photo: Lars Tore Endresen / Lars Tore Endresen – It’s very cool, and very scary. It is a person many people have a strong relationship with. During the recording at Rjukan and Vemork, he has been told that he is very similar to the man he plays. – It’s very nice, but then I’ll see what kind of version I make. We have to create our interpretation and our story about Gunnar. – A good person Historian Petter Ringen Johannessen was Sønsteby’s personal assistant for 12 years. He contributes to the production with personal knowledge in addition to the historical. Erik Hivju, Cato Skimten Storengen (who plays Petter Ringen Johannessen) and Petter Ringen Johannessen. Photo: Lars Tore Endresen / Lars Tore Endresen – Gunnar was a special person, both because of the historical person he was, but also because of the person he was. He was a good person, with a burning commitment to what he called the cause, the legacy from the days of the war. That this must never happen again. Johannessen thinks Hivju copes with the role of the well-grown Sønsteby very well. – In a way, he has Gunnar inside, in his body and body language. He manages to express it in a way that I am very pleased with. – Can’t see it for us. Parts of the recording take place in Rjukan, Sønsteby’s hometown. He was an honor student at Rjukan secondary school, and students from the school are in the film as extras. The local population acts as extras when the last shots of the film are recorded. Photo: Lars Tore Endresen / news – In a way, you feel that you are part of it, since he also went to the same school as me, says Monica Havn. Andrea Braathen has heard from her grandparents that it was special to be young at Rjukan during the war. – I don’t think we can imagine what it was like to be them at that time, she says. Monica Havn and Andrea Braathen from Rjukan secondary school think it is exciting to take part in a film recording about Sønsteby, who was an honor student at their school. Photo: Lars Tore Endresen / Lars Tore Endresen Spy thriller The film’s producer, Espen Horn, will call the film a spy thriller with the Second World War as a backdrop. Producer Espen Horn calls the film a spy thriller. Photo: Lars Tore Endresen / Lars Tore Endresen – I would like to convey this incredible man, who slept with a hand grenade under his pillow and who managed to avoid the Germans during the five years of the war. Horn believes there is a need for more war films, despite the fact that many have been filmed in the past. He points out that every fifth American youth believes the Holocaust is a myth, and that youth in several European countries owe the Jews for using the Holocaust to their advantage. – Yes, I need more stories from the Second World War, he concludes.
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Erik Hivju in the role of Gunnar Sønsteby – news Vestfold and Telemark – Local news, TV and radio
