Misery Harbour

"Love and murder, murder and love.
These are the only things worth writing about"
Aksel Sandemose

The drama is adapted from the semi-autobiographical fiction "A refugee crosses his tracks" (En flyktning krysser sitt spor) (1933) of Danish-norwegian author Aksel Sandemose (1899-1965), the father of Janteloven. Misery Harbor (Flugten fra Jante) concerns Espen, an introverted young author in love with a young woman named Jenny. The storyline is fascinating, showing how Espen gets to learn that the norm from his hometown, Jante, basically saying that you aren't supposed to believe you are anything, exists in other places as well.

A young writer named Espen Arnakke tells the story of his escape from the small Danish town of Jante. Espen boards a ship headed to Newfoundland, but the harsh conditions on board makes him jump ship, and he ends up in the little town of Misery Harbour. There he meets the girl of his dreams. But his passion shifts to jealousy when one of the men from the ship mysteriously appears in town, and sets out to make Espen's life a misery.

Misery Harbor is a Canadian and Norwegian co-production, must to be seen, to find out the Danish philosophy of life.