24/20
Armand, a 6-year-old boy, is accused of crossing the line with his best friend from elementary school, Norway’s official submission for the “Best International Feature Film” category of the 97th Academy Awards in 2025. The first feature film by Halfdan Ullman. Tønder, the grandson of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullman, is a part-allegorical, part-naturalistic dissection of the 20th-century educational and educational system. 21st century, and its handling of an “unfortunate incident” between two 6-year-old boys. Renate Reinsve is Armand’s eccentric mother, the alleged perpetrator of said incident, and as she finds herself scrutinized by her son’s teacher, the school administration, and the other boy’s parents, the film slowly descends into an interrelational abyss, a limbo from which good things can never emerge. Ullman Tønder’s purpose and stance are solid, as is his artistic expression, which is clearly inspired by the works of his grandfather and perhaps to some extent by those of Kubrick. And while the narrative itself sometimes seems uneven and the film is poorly edited, Armand is in many ways a return and homage to pure cinema, for which it deserves to be appreciated.