Julie Lampe

This the story of a wizard elk - Rauten, as people called him. He was a human being in animal guise. The story begins in Ré Valley, which lies like a yawning gap between mountains, long and flat with borders of forests so dark that they look as though part of the blackness of night lingered in them. A river moves sluggishly along the bottom of the valley, making its way slowly and carefully between stretches of light-red sand. It runs northwards, a rare thing in Norway.

Den store barnedåpen (English: The great christening) is a 1931 Norwegian comedy film directed by Tancred Ibsen, starring Einar Sissener, Aase Bye and Agnete Schibsted-Hansson. It was the first feature-length Norwegian sound film. The lacklustre Harald (Sissener) is taken in by Alvilde (Bye), and charged with looking after her bastard child. It soon dawns on both of them that Harald has more potential than previously assumed.

Tore takes over the rundown family farm. Applying his youthful energy, he intends to make it into a big farm like Glomgården on the other side of the river, where beautiful Berit loves. Tore falls in love with her, but her father has promised her to rich Gjermund. As her wedding to Gjermund draws near, Berit runs away and seeks refuge with Tore and his parents. She soon falls deathly ill but recovers, asking for, and getting, her father’s permission to marry Tore. Jealous Gjermund is determined to prevent their wedding, however, in a dramatic climactic scene playing out around the rushing river.

A Norwegian comedy