Out Stealing Horses (2019) - full transcript

If you've ever wondered
how it went with me,

then you can feel free to know
that I had a good life.

I was lucky.

HORSES STEAL

All my life I have longed for it
to be alone in a place like this.

No matter how nice it was.

I have lived in Sweden for 42 years.
Now I live here.

In a couple of weeks
this century is over.

Then there is a party with fireworks in the village.
I'm not going there.

I'm staying home here.
Me just drinking drunk enough

and sleep as deeply as possible
without being dead.



I'm looking forward to that.

Poker.

Poker.

Poker.

Poker.

Poker?
- Hey.

You certainly live in that house, don't you?

I moved here.

It is not easy to sleep like
he is not there. There are wolves in the forest.

Poker?

Come, sit, place.

Do you know that border collies are the most intelligent
are dogs considered in the world?

I heard that.

He's in charge of me,
I fear.



Thats not so good.
- No.

I shot a dog once
and I vowed never to do that again.

But now
I just don't know yet.

Yes? What kind of dog was that?
who you had to shoot?

A sheepdog.
But he wasn't mine.

My mother saw him first.

He ran free along the edge of the forest,
chased the deer,

that we had seen for a few days
grazing. They gradually became exhausted.

Mother called the police and asked what they should do
and he said, "Shoot him."

"You should do that, Lars,"
she said then.

I absolutely didn't feel like it,
I almost never touched that gun.

I couldn't help it. Suddenly
the two deer ran towards me.

Thirty meters behind it
the shepherd dog arrived.

It was a huge beast.

I'm sure I hit him,
but he changed

neither of speed nor of direction.

I fired another shot,
he was just a few meters from me

and then he slid his feet into the air
all the way to just before my feet.

He lay there.

Me with paralyzed legs
looking straight at it.

I stooped to stroke him,
but he growled

and bit my hand.

I gave him two more bullets,

straight through his head.
- Nice thing.

I just turned 19.

It was a long time ago, but
i never forget it.

Now I understand you
never want to shoot a dog again.

We will see.

We never introduced ourselves to each other.

Trond Sander.

Lars Haug, with a g.

Come on, Poker.

Thank you for the company.

Jesus.

Olav can now replace the light and
I will order a new glass and spoiler.

Go to the store.
- Thank you.

Are you still happy?
- Yes of course.

I was very happy when I was
found the house I live in now.

It's not that nice
to live alone, right?

It was almost three years ago
that she died. Time flies.

38 years of solitude ended abruptly.

I was the driver.
I don't feel guilty.

Only the lack.

Olav has a break. Do you want a cup of coffee?
- That would be nice.

Go inside.

Thank you.
- And...

how are you doing at Toppen?

I've been there twice myself
to view the house.

I wondered if I would make an offer,
but I like tinkering, not carpentry.

But is that perhaps the other way around with you?

Not really.
I am not very skilled in either,

but i have all the time.

My father was a practical man.
I learned a lot from him.

Fathers are something nice.

No thanks.

My father was a teacher.
I learned to read books from him,

not much more. He wasn't practical,
that would have been a lie.

But he was a nice man.

If I have a practical job, I introduce myself
for how my father would have done it.

Someone in their early 40s with confidence,

this is how i saw my father,
when I was 15

and he disappeared from my life forever.

Why don't you mow those nettles,
Trond?

That hurts.

You decide yourself
when it hurts.

I was only 15 years old.
Such a petty city kid.

On summer vacation with father,
who had bought the farm cheaply.

I have heard him say he more than once
could not think with women in the neighborhood.

That's why I was allowed to come,
but not my sister or my mother.

Later I thought he might
not all women.

Hi, Jon.

Have you been here a long time?
- I just got here.

We're going to steal horses.
- I know.

Hi, Jon.

What's the matter with him?
- I do not know.

Of course I should have understood
that there was something special that morning,

something with the way
on which he moved.

But the only thing I noticed
was that he didn't have his gun with him,

that he always took with him.

Quiet. Come here. Calm down.

Quiet.

Calm down.

If so.

And jump.

Where are we going?
- I'll show you something.

Look.

It's great that something small is capable of this
to live and just fly away.

This morning,
were you on the road with Jon?

Yes.

What did you do?

Stealing horses.

We didn't really want to steal them,
only on driving.

How was Jon?

Do you want to know what everyone is talking about
in the shop?

The day before

Jon had been on a hare hunt,
as always.

His mother went to Innbygda that day
to visit a few acquaintances

and his father was in the forest.

And he should have looked after the twins.

Odd? Lars?

Odd? Lars?

Odd. Lars.

Odd. Lars.

Lars.

Lars.

I have to pick up your mother.
Watch out for Lars while I'm gone.

You can do that.

Here I am again, isn't that nice?

He didn't tell.

All that long way through the forest,
just the two of you

and he had told her nothing.

Where's Odd?

So now you know.

Sorry for your loss.

Verily, verily, I say to you,

who hears My word
and believe him who sent me,

it has eternal life
and will not be damned,

but has passed from death
in life.

Our father
who are in heaven,

be sanctified your name,
your kingdom come,

your will be done,
as in heaven so also on earth.

I thought about how that felt
had to be to die so young.

I knew you could feel absolutely nothing.
If you were dead, you were dead,

but that fraction of a second
just before:

if you understood then
that it was over?

Russian grenades hail down on Grozny.

Three days of bombing led
to a stream of refugees.

Countdown to a possible chaos.
The Civil Protection ...

Now I suddenly know for sure.
Lars is Lars.

Lars, who shot his brother.

Even though I last saw him
when he was ten years old.

Not that it changes anything. I'm out of it
convinced that he did not recognize me.

I now also speak Swedish.

Four days had passed
since Odd's funeral

and I had not seen Jon since.

Every time Jon wasn't at the door,
I felt a brief fluttering relief.

Then I was ashamed

and then he disappeared from my life.

I've never seen him again.

She was serious and had swollen eyelids,
but she was not broke with sorrow.

She was only a few years younger
then my own mother.

She beamed,
as if I saw her for the first time.

Thank you for coming.

And I was wondering
whether that was because of what had happened,

or you go through something like that
as it were, could become luminous.

I had to focus my eyes on the floor
and walked away.

That coat shadow.

Maybe we should do it staggered?
A little bit now, a little bit next year?

I decide
when my wood is felled.

Franz.

Franz.

I have mixed my blood with fate
and take it as it comes.

Do you fancy a shower?

Who is first outside.

Come on.

Are you just going to stand there?

Your father does take a risk
by cutting down trees in the middle of the summer.

The wood is full of moisture.
It can sink.

The water level is low. The question is
whether the wood will reach Sweden.

But if he wants to do it now,
then we do it now.

Ah, come on.

Calm down.

He had just lost his one son.

But I don't even remember
if I felt sorry for him.

For the first time I felt a stab
resentment towards my father.

Because he was the most perfect until then
moment in my life.

Jesus...

What did you say?

"Jesus," I said.

What happened today ...

that was completely unnecessary.

I should have stopped much earlier.

As we were doing it had to
ended up wrong.

It is my fault.

I will also go to bed later.

Good evening.

I was just going to eat,
but that doesn't matter, come in.

Stay there.

Are you hungry?
There is enough for two.

Sit down.

Tastes good.

I know who you are.

I also know who you are.

I thought so.

Take a look here.

I wish Lars had not said
what he said,

it binds me to a past
that I had left behind.

I've never been alone.

Not really.

I didn't feel the person
that I had been when this day started.

And I didn't even know
if I was sad about that.

For the first time in my life
I didn't want to be someone's son.

Hey?

Breakfast?

Up early.
- Yes, I woke up early.

And ... I felt alone.

Did you find him?

Yes.

He came to hide here
for when he had to go to Sweden

with papers and letters and sometimes
with films for the resistance.

I knew he was coming.
One day he knocked.

He said:
'Are you coming? We're going to steal horses. "

I don't know who made it up, but
those were the words that had been agreed.

He then settled in Barkald,
where you are now on summer vacation.

Every morning he stayed with the German guard
talking, because his German wasn't bad.

He hammered, chopped wood.
He built up an alternative life here.

Jon's mother rowed once or twice
a week on the river,

to act like a housekeeper
to act for my father,

so he didn't get sick
of that one-sided cost.

Everyone understood that
even the Germans.

I wondered why my friend Jon or
whoever did not mention it:

that he had been to this village so often, that
he was counted among the permanent residents.

One day a man came from the city.
On the run. He had to go to Sweden.

It was an important peak
from the home front.

He hid there for a few days
waiting for a flight option.

Several times a day
the Germans drove past the farm.

Jon's father wanted nothing with 'the traffic'
dealing. He was scared.

No one knew what the dung-clad city man
rotated.

Do you want the Germans here?

Jon's mother had rowed it to your father
to take him to Sweden.

Stop.

You have to follow in his footsteps.

But Jon's father looked the other way
and didn't do it.

Halt, Bittesch?n. Halt.

Halt, Bittesch?n.

So he stayed in Sweden
until the war was over.

Why do you tell me all those things?
- Because he asked me to do that.

If the opportunity arose.
And that was the case now.

Come.

Shall we attack him?

Gladly.

I think of the human body:

invincible one moment,

the following
lost forever.

I do not know
if Lars thinks so.

That pile looks really good.

Those are just a few sticks.

But he is still beautiful.
Just like a real miniature.

I don't know what miniature is.

That is like something very small,
exactly the same as something big.

It's just a few sticks.
- Fine.

It's just a few sticks.

Don't you want to eat anything?

No.

All right. That is fine too.

You don't have to damn you.

At least I'm hungry.

I shot my brother.

I know that.

But it wasn't your fault.

You didn't know
that the gun was loaded.

No, I did not know that.

It was an accident.

Yes.

It was an accident.

Everyone says that.

Are you sure you don't want to eat?
- Yes

I'll stay here.

Are you afraid
you get snowed in?

Yes.

That too.

Then you have to find someone who clears snow.
- Yes, Aslien.

So then you're in the right place.

I can feel his mood
infectious.

But it also surprises me,
it worries me.

Something in me is changing,
I am changing,

in someone
whom I don't know very well.

I wonder
how long that change has been going on.

Shall I put some wood in the stove?

Great, do that.

I would actually take over the farm.

You must have wondered
why I live here

and not in the village
where I come from?

Yes, a little bit.

I'd take him over.

After all, I was the only one at home.

Jon went to the sea and Odd was ...

Odd was dead.

I had worked on that farm every day,
never vacation like the farmers have now.

And my father never came back.

He fell ill.
Nobody understood what he actually had.

And the years passed.

Fall 1956

And then Jon stepped out one day
just off the bus, the road came down

and said he was prepared
to take over the farm.

He was lean and lanky.

He can never run a farm,
I thought.

But I couldn't do anything about it.
It was his right.

Have you taken the place
who was actually mine?

Can I smoke in here?

Of course.

What did you do then?

I left.

On the day I turned twenty.
I have never been home afterwards.

Sodeju.

I haven't seen my mother anymore
since I was 20.

Is she still alive?

I do not know.

I never figured that out.

Thanks for the food.

Where are we going?

In a week
take the bus home to Oslo.

It was the summer for me.

But that's life.

You learn from that,
when things happen.

Don't forget to think about it

later on.

And never be bitter.

It is permitted to think.

Yes.

Do you understand?

You step into Elverum
on the train home, to Oslo.

Then I finish everything here
and if that happened, I will come.

Is that good?

Yes that is good.

No. It was not good.
I had a bad feeling.

The big question that I ask myself in the time after that
time and again:

or that he already knew then
that he would never come after.

That it was the last time
that we saw each other.

Are you awake?

Yes.

We will take it tomorrow.
We send the wood on the road.

Franz is coming to help.
- Alright.

It will not be child's play.
It is a lot of wood.

We have to cut them down with the ax.

A easy-going person
must take great risks now and then.

Run, damn it.

Did you get my dad?

Have you had years of my life
who were actually meant for me?

Father stayed with the river with her.
I know that for sure.

And that Lars is not talking about him,
that must be because he wants to spare me.

Have you been stealing horses?

Put on your clothes
and come out immediately.

Where are we going?
- You know our own river

all the way from here
until a whole stretch runs in Sweden?

She doesn't need to ask anyone for permission.

She is writhing here
undisturbed in the landscape.

We are going to do the same.

We are going on a trip to Sweden,
see how our wood is doing.

That is setback.

Now there is little water.
That's why they usually do it in the spring.

One two Three.

See that sunspot there?

Sweden starts there.

Who is the first.
Come on.

Does it hurt a lot somewhere?

Only a little bit in the soul?

Lower it, Trond.

Just leave it.

You can't use it for anything.

Trond?

Trond.

I've got you.

Are you OK?

Come on.

Come on.

The 3.45 pm train from Elverum
has just arrived on track 4.

I waited for the Elverum train
that late summer every day.

Is it you?
- Yes I'ts me.

That is certainly a surprise, isn't it?

I can't deny that.

Hi, Father of mine.

I called all municipalities within 100 km,
to find out where you live.

And more.
I've been busy for weeks.

Then I came to have a look,
in Norway.

You don't even have a phone.

Damn it too.

You can now switch off the engine.

It is beautiful here.

I thought it would be beautiful,
over time.

Would you rather have
that I had not come?

Maybe you want to be left alone?
That's why you're here, aren't you?

And then...

I come before dawn
drove into your yard and bothered you.

I've changed my life.

I didn't feel like it anymore,
after the accident.

How are you doing?

I'm doing well.

The days pass. I have a neighbor
with whom I have a lot in common.

A handy guy with a chainsaw.
It is especially he who helps me.

I chop wood,
carpenter, take long walks

and in the evening I read everything.

But especially Dickens.

You always read Dickens at home.

The letter is addressed to all three of us.
He's from father.

"Thanks for the time we have together
had. I look back with joy on it,

but now there is another time
and there is nothing you can do about it:

I'm not coming home anymore.

In a bank in Karlstad, Sweden,
I have credit

for the wood we had that summer
felled and sent along with the river.

I have already written to the bank
so you can withdraw the money

with your passport and the power of attorney
I have attached.

All the best.'

Wood?

I did not understand that D?ckens was the name
of the man who had written the book.

I thought it was a special type of book
that only we had.

Sometimes you read aloud
from David Copperfield.

"Whether I become the hero
in my own life story,

whether that role is assigned to another,
time will tell. "

I always found that start scary.

That we don't necessarily have the lead
had to play in our own lives.

Something so horrible:

a kind of ghost existence,

in which I could only look at the one
who had taken my place.

I did not know
that you had such thoughts.

You never told me that.

No.

She has no idea
how many times I have thought the same thing

and then had to read through,
almost stiff with fear.

Warmlandsbank.
- Yes, but that's not here.

Are you cold?
- No, I'm not cold.

It's not here. I do ask someone.
- It must be somewhere around here.

It is beautiful here.
- We can't keep walking around here.

We have to ask someone the way.
- We sure will find it.

We certainly do that in the end.

Excuse me? The W?rmlandsbank.

What?
- The road to the W?rmlandsbank.

Do you know where it is?
Are you deaf?

What?
- Are you deaf?

Do you want a slap on your face?

I had made a choice,
when I didn't hit that man in Karlstad.

If I had hit,
I had become a different man.

Then my life would
have become a different life.

Was there no bill?
- Yes, it went fine.

I got the money,
but it was only 150 crowns.

Doesn't that seem a little low?

I don't understand that, but how much
do you think you can earn from such wood?

No idea.
- We went on a journey together.

Do you know what the funniest thing is?
We have to spend the money here.

We cannot take it to Norway.
Because of certain currency restrictions.

Come.

Hey.
We are looking for a suit for this young man here.

Such a one for him there.

Jacket out.

Is it okay inside, Trond?

At that moment everything felt fine.

It was a nice suit
and it was a beautiful city.

And we decide for ourselves

when it hurts.

Based on the novel by Per Petterson
HORSES STEAL