Nina Andresen-Borud

Fia is a wise and somewhat tough 8-year-old girl. Perhaps a cousin of Pippi Longstocking, only a little more vulnerable. Like Pippi, and all other children, she wants to be big and strong, with the power and opportunity to make the world the way she wants it to be. Fia has a difficult role as a kind of "mother" to her mother, a mother who is unable to cope with everyday life. But in the yard opposite lives the magician Bustric, and he becomes Fia's anchor in life. Bustric is a little grown up, but very much a child, and he saves Fia from being seen as a liar and a dreamer in the new class she has to start in.

Kaisa is a Scot, a successful London lawyer, who snorts coke and has one-night stands with strangers. Her mother calls from Aberdeen with some story begging her to fly to Norway and collect her alcoholic dad whom she hasn't seen in years.

Daniel Jor is a 28-year-old psychiatrist, still living with his mom. He and his friend Ronny have one thing in common, they like searching for metallic objects in the ground. One day they find a jewel with the name "Janne" imprinted. This is the beginning of something big for Daniel. His life will never be the same. He's about to discover a lot of hidden secrets, about himself and others.

Adapted from a series of short stories by Norwegian author Levi Henriksen, Bent Hamer's "Home for Christmas" weaves together the lives of people struggling to find their way home on a Christmas Eve, beneath the colors of the Northern Lights. The plot unfolds during a few afternoon hours on Christmas Eve. The individual stories, which at times intertwine, are set in the small town Skogli. The characters in the stories cover a great range in age and life situations, representing both reconciliation with their own lives and strong frustration. Some show the will to understand and do something about their lives, while others have given up. Deeply tragic and melancholy aspects are mixed with humour and rather frivolous solutions.

The controversial story about "Jesus", placed in Oslo today. Jesus drinks, curses and attends to prostitutes, to fit in to modern life.

Frank Farrelli takes on the job as a middle man in the God-forsaken town of Karmack, USA, a community in a depression so deep that they need a middle man to professionally communicate more of the bad news.

A serial killer is on the loose in Oslo. He kills and leaves mysterious notes under the bodies with lines from a children's song. Problems pile up for investigator Cato Isaksen, both in relation to his two families and the murder cases.