24/09/2013 - “An impressive debut that touches and raises important questions about being a woman and man in a complex society,” said the Norwegian Oscar committee of this year’s submission

Norwegian-Pakistani director Iram Haq’s I Am Yours [+see also:
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film profile] (photo) was yesterday (September 23) named Norway’s official candidate for the Academy Award 2014 for Best Foreign-Language Feature, from the shortlist with Arild Østin Ommundsen’s It’s Only Make Believe and Erik Skjoldbjærg’s Pioneer [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Haq’s first feature - and the first to be supported by the Norwegian Film Institute’s New Ways scheme - was earlier this month (September) screened in the Discovery section of the 38^th Toronto Film Festival; it was domestically released on August 16 by SF Norge and has so far taken 10,600 admissions.

Starring Amrita Acharia and Ola Rapace, the Maria Ekerhovd production for Mer Film follows a young, single mother looking for the one and only. She has different boyfriends, but the relationships never work; then she falls in love with a Swede, Jesper, but he does not seem ready for family life.

“I Am Yours is an impressive debut that touches and raises important questions about being a woman and man in a complex society; the committee sees it as a very mature and universal film, a personal and authentic work created by a woman director, with a female lead that carries the film's expression to the full,” was the motivation.

Norway is yet to collect the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Feature. Norwegian anthropologist and explorer Thor Heyerdahl’s own film, his Kon-Tiki expedition,won for Best Documentary in 1951,but it went to the Swedish producer Olle Nordemar. Former nominations include Arne Skouen’s Nine Lives (1957), Nils Gaup’s Pathfinder (1987), Berit Nesheim’s The Other Side of Sunday (1996), Petter Næss’ Elling (2001) and Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning’s Kon-Tiki [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (2012).