– I did all my stunts myself, says Carl Martin Eggesbø. In the film “Kampen om Narvik” he has the main role as the young corporal Gunnar Tofte. In order to fulfill his role as best as possible, Eggesbø had, among other things, to take shooting training, and he had to challenge himself from great heights. – In one scene, my role jumps from the Norddalsbrua into the snow, says Eggesbø. Norddalsbrua is 40 meters at its highest. – But I didn’t jump completely from the top. I jumped from maybe 20 meters. This is just some of what was needed to make the war drama from Narvik. Here are a few other details that might be fun to know about the film: THE TRAILER: The first images from the film depicting the night of April 9, 1940 and the 62 days that followed, when soldiers from Norway, England, Poland and France took up the fight against Hitler. (Photos from Nordisk Film) Centimeters from injuring her head Kristine Hartgen has the female lead in the film. She plays the wife of Corporal Gunnar Tofte, Ingrid Tofte. Kristine Hartgen also did her own stunts. And it could quickly go wrong. In one of the scenes, it explodes near Hartgen. Nordisk Film Distribution – There is an air cannon that goes off. I would count to myself and then throw myself into a wall. It became a kind of “one take wonder” of which I am very proud. It was all quite intense. I got an awful lot of adrenaline, says Hartgen. – Was it painful? – No, I had so much adrenaline in my body that it trembled. I was actually about to hit a bench with my head when I fell. Personally, I didn’t notice, but the director said I was only inches away. Both Kristine Hartgen and Carl Martin Eggesbø also had to challenge their language skills for their roles in “The Battle of Narvik”. Spoke Tromsø dialect all the time The main character Ingrid speaks a little German in the film. Kristine Hartgen thus had to spend a few hours with a German-speaking actor friend. – We had meetings at my house where we drank coffee and spoke German. – Do you speak fluent German now? – No, but I have learned the pronunciation quite well. So I should probably be able to fool the Germans into thinking I can do it. Carl Martin Eggesbø did not have to learn a new language, but a new dialect. His role speaks Northern Norwegian in the film. SPOKEN GERMAN: Kristine Hartgens had to learn some German words for the role of Ingrid. Photo: Eirik Linder Aspelund / Nordisk Film – I have lived in Tromsø for around half a year, when I worked on “Peer Gynt” at Hålogaland Theatre. Then I had to speak the Tromsø dialect, so I had little foundation, says Eggesbø. – The biggest challenge is getting a new dialect to sit in your body. That’s why I talked like that all the time while we were working on the film to get comfortable with it. In order to master the dialect, Carl Martin Eggesbø also made use of his Northern Norwegian friends. Kristine Hartgen gained experience from her grandmothers. Hear Carl Martin Eggesbø speak Northern Norwegian in P3 Morgen: Play sound Yes, I can try to speak a little, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been doing that. Password “grandmother” – I have two grandmothers, one from Narvik and one from Hammerfest. Grandma in Hammerfest was the same age as my role Ingrid during the war, says Hartgen. She therefore talked a lot with her grandmothers to create the role she was to play. – It was about understanding the way they looked at the world back then. How it must have been when the big international war machine comes to a small fishing town and a girl who has never been outside Northern Norway and has never seen such things. During the recording, Hartgen and director Erik Skjoldbjærg had their own code. – He could only say “grandmother”, then I knew where I should be inside. But Hartgen and Eggesbø were not the only ones who had to make some sacrifices to do a proper job in the blockbuster. LEARNED A LOT: Kristine Hartgen got a lot of help from her grandmothers to interpret the role of Ingrid in “Kampen om Narvik”. Here with grandmother Aase “Mossa” Valen from Hammerfest. Aase died in October, aged 101. CLOSE RELATIONSHIP: Kristine Hartgen has a close relationship with her grandmothers. Here with grandmother in Rigmor Hartgen Narvik. Braces removed Actress Mathilde Cuhra had braces on the same day she received the call about the role in “Kampen om Narvik”. So she just had to remove the braces again, Cuhra tells iTromsø. The film about Narvik also has an important historical perspective. Therefore, the company behind the film has created a separate school scheme to spread as much of the story as possible. THE TROMSØGANG: Photographer John-Erling Holmenes Fredriksen and actors Mathilde Cuhra and Kristine Hartgen are all from Tromsø, and all have contributed to the film “Kampen om Narvik”. Photo: Kristine Hartgen Hitler’s first defeat The battle for Narvik was Adolf Hitler’s first defeat during the Second World War. It was the biggest battle on Norwegian soil. Several hundred people lost their lives. Eventually, the British troops withdrew to contribute further south in Europe. The Germans took advantage of that, and razed Narvik to the ground. The city remained under German occupation until the war ended in 1945. In total, 85 planes were shot down, 65 ships were sunk and 8,500 people died in the fighting in and around Narvik. Last soldier died just before Christmas As the last survivor of the Norwegian soldiers who fought during the Battle of Narvik, Eystein Røset had his own preview of the film together with his family. Røset was 21 years old in 1940 and barely survived the battles for Narvik. He told news that there were rumors that the Germans had gone ashore near Gratangen. Norwegian soldiers were ordered there to stop the Germans before they advanced towards Narvik. In the fighting in Gratangen, 34 Norwegian soldiers were killed. Eystein was shot in the arm, but survived. Read his full story here:
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Fun facts from the Battle of Narvik. You didn’t know this about Carl Martin Eggesbø and Kristine Hartgen – news Nordland
