Oslo, August 31st

Plot

Anders is a recovering drug addict in an Oslo rehab clinic. On 30 August, he is given a day's leave to attend a job interview in the city centre. After visiting his friend Thomas, he proceeds to his appointment. In the interview, he admits to being a drug addict and storms out. He then wanders the streets of Oslo for the rest of the day and night, meeting, and sometimes confronting, people from his past. The film ends the next day, 31 August. Anders, who has bought some drugs on his day away from the rehab clinic, retreats to a room within the family home and injects.

Cast

Reception

Oslo, August 31st has received widespread critical acclaim from both film critics and audiences. Review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes reports that 98% of critics have given the film a positive review, based on 57 reviews with an average rating of 8.2/10. The general consensus being: "An upfront study of a drug addict confronting his demons, Oslo, August 31st makes this dark journey worthwhile with fantastic directing and equally fantastic acting." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, reports the film has a score of 84. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four stars and said the film is "quietly, profoundly, one of the most observant and sympathetic films I've seen". Ebert went on to name it the ninth best film of the year in his annual list.