Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken – director – Returning Home

FRED’s Chiara Nicoletti meets director Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken in competition at the 13th edition of Alice nella Città with his first feature film RETURNING HOME.

Two brothers embark on a journey through the mountains of Norway, to look for their father who’s gone missing after being returned from Afghanistan only a few days before. As Dahlsbakken wrote this film with his brother , the story focuses on brotherhood and the search for reference points in life.

Returning Home is a coming of age story which frames the exact moment of passage from adolescence to adulthood, when we start seeing our parents as imperfect and fragile as we all are.

RETURNING HOME: Two young brothers are forced to track down their absent father, having recently returned from service in Afghanistan, after he disappears during a reindeer hunt in the mountains.

The feature film Returning Home (2015) begins as Einar (played by Ingar Helge Gimle) returns to his family in Norway after serving as an officer in Afghanistan for nearly a year. Absent a clear father figure, the eldest brother Oscar (Aasmund Hoeg) has assumed responsibility for little brother Fredrik (Fredrik Grondahl) and the home, as their mother Anna (Lia Boysen) is bedridden most of the time. The homecoming does not turn out as expected, as the father seems distant upon seeing his family again. He goes out hunting the morning after and doesn’t return as promised that evening. After spending the entire night waiting, the boys decide to walk up the mountain, hoping to find their father.

The search itself becomes a test of manhood and the brothers’ relationship, one from which they will return forever changed.