Fant (film)

Fant (The Gypsy)[1][2] is a Norwegian film from 1937 based on Gabriel Scott's 1928 novel of the same name.[3] The film was directed by Tancred Ibsen, who was also wrote the script for the film. The film premiered on December 26, 1937 at the Eldorado Cinema in Oslo.[3]

The film is about a young orphaned girl Josefa (played by Sonja Wigert), who escapes from her wicked uncle (played by Einar Tveito) and eventually falls in love with a Roma named Fændrik (played by Alfred Maurstad). Fændrik belongs to a seafaring group of Roma that travel around Southern Norway, and in many ways the film is typical of the contemporary view of the Roma people and their culture.

Guri Stormoen, who played the role of Mathilde, said that during the production her opponent Alfred Maurstad had stabbed her in the stomach with a knife during the filming of a fight scene, and that director Ibsen had ordered the actors to "fight seriously, otherwise it would look idiotic, of course. And with that, we had to yell at each other, and then—it was absolutely awful!" The actors had to lie in their beds the day after this scene was filmed, according to Stormoen, because they were battered and full of bruises.[4]

Fant was received well by both the critics and the public when it was released, and Alfred Maurstad in particular was praised for his role as the ruthless layabout Fændrik.[5]