‘King Of Devil’s Island’ opens Friday, January 20th for a weeklong run at the Siskel Film Center.
There are many things about Marius Holst’s troubled-boys-in-reform-school film, King Of Devil’s Island (Kongen av Bastøy) (Norway, 2010) that will sound familiar – stark conditions, a corrupt ‘warden,’ the noble strong protecting the seemingly doomed weak, and the inmates finally revolting against injustice. Erling (Benjamin Helstad), an older boy who’s been used to the hard work of the whaling industry, is brought to the island reformatory of Bastøy with another scrawny slip of a boy named Ivar (Magnus Langlete). They’re briefed on the rules and issued uniforms by the housemaster, Bråthen (Kristoffer Joner), and Erling (now consigned to being named C-19) is given a stern but constructive lecture by the island’s governor / ‘Bestyreren' (Stellan Skarsgård). At first, Erling is a smart tough guy; he’s willing to let sleeping dogs lie and just serve his time as uneventfully as possible, but he’s not to be messed with. C-19’s mettle is tested in the usual ways, and he earns the begrudging respect and friendship of the inmate charged with keeping order amongst his fellow prisoners, C-1 (Trond Nilssen). C-19 gives C-1 a fair amount of grief over the amount of brown-nosing C-1 must submit to in order to keep the supervisors placated, but both C-19 and C-1 share growing concern over the mousy and overmatched Ivar (C-5), who is obviously not cut out for reform school, physically or temperamentally. And when they learn that C-5 is being victimized by the rodent-like Bråthen in private, the practical tolerance of the two friends is challenged and betrayed.
None of the people who run the reform school are outright villains or sadists. The Bestyreren honestly wants to rehabilitate his charges and produce “the honorable, humble, useful Christian boy inside you.” But, ultimately, he’s also a government bureaucrat who must protect his own interests; he genuinely cares about the boys, but when they come between him and his continued career (and happiness – his wife resides with him on the island as well, until…), then his foot is quickly on their necks. And as hateful a character as Bråthen may seem, Holst is careful to keep him human; the arguments Bråthen makes in order to keep his job seem more like hierarchical turnabout-as-fair-play than desperately villainous blackmail - Kristoffer Joner brings more complexity to the character of Bråthen than one would normally be inclined to tolerate. The Penn State parallels are easy to jump to, but, please, try to resist that urge.
The story is apparently true – there was a boy’s revolt on Bastøy Island in 1915, and the Norwegian army was indeed brought in to defend against the revolting teenagers. Ironically, Bastøy is now a minimum-security prison for Norway’s worst offenders – murderers, rapists, drug traffickers, etc. But the maximum sentence for any crime in Norway is 21 years, so Norway’s penal system is predominantly about rehabilitation rather than meting out punishment or vengeance. And, of course, they’re still on a remote island; escape is virtually impossible, as C-19 discovers early in the film. (The ‘Devil’s Island’ title sobriquet is unfortunate; calling it 'Bastøy' is apparently too straightforward for American marketers. I'm surprised they didn't add an exclamation point).
The rich, complex characterizations (all of the leads are impressive, especially the young Helstad and Nilssen), the striking but matter-of-fact imagery of Holst and cinematographer John Andreas Andersen, and the efficient script by Holst and his four collaborators, all elevate the story far above the usual prison drama. They understand they’re making a genre film, and hit all of the familiar notes, but are also canny enough to understand what makes the best of them so compelling. It’s a terrific, involving drama, and I highly recommend it.
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