Renate Reinsve is a woman in crisis in first Armand trailer

The Norwegian film has been shortlisted for the Best International Feature Film at the Oscars.

By Emma Keates  |  January 8, 2025 | 1:03pm
Image: IFC Films/YouTube
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Renate Reinsve is a woman in crisis in first Armand trailer

She may not be The World Person In The World, but Renate Reinsve’s character doesn’t seem to have a lot of friends in Armand, Norway’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars. The film’s first trailer is tense, claustrophobic, and may trigger any dormant paranoia you have hiding somewhere in your conscience. Accusations fly across the screen in red letters; if that allusion wasn’t clear enough, here’s the film’s logline, per Variety:

Armand centers on well-known actress Elisabeth (Reinsve), who is abruptly called into a parent-teacher meeting at her 6-year-old son’s school after hours. Here she is presented with allegations that trigger a tangled web of accusations between parents and faculty… As Elisabeth struggles to uncover the truth amid the empty school rooms and dark corridors, a chaotic fight for redemption arises where desire, madness and obsession prevail.

The Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel-directed film originally premiered at Cannes, where it was awarded the Caméra d’Or for best first feature. “Nearly all the scenes in the movie concern situations with diffuse boundaries and difficult gray areas: Truth or lie? Victim or abuser? Guilty or innocent? Play or violence?” Ullmann Tøndel said in a statement. “Have we ever had such unclear boundaries between what’s right and wrong—when such conflicting notions have been so close to each other?”

The film will play a limited run in U.S. theaters on February 7, before opening wide on February 14.

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