14/46
Story
Armando, a 6-year-old boy, is accused of crossing borders with his best friend in elementary school. Norway’s official entry for the “Best International Feature Film” category at the 97th Academy Awards in 2025. Norwegian films usually have low international standards, but here is a film that can meet exceptionally low Norwegian standards. This is a truly rare feat. For the most part, the film looks like it was made by first-year film school students. These students decided to make an experimental film that had never been seen before, and they succeeded. However, some things were forgotten. Among other things, they forgot that even in the script of bad films there are some tricks to keep the viewers hooked until the end with some cliffhangers or other cinematic techniques. This film does not have that. This is just exceptionally bad. It’s also arguably the cheapest film ever made. The costs are limited to the actors, the camera, the lighting and sound crew, and no one is technically challenged in any of the scenes. If you’re strong enough to hold a camera and a microphone, you can make this film. The film takes place entirely in the hallways and rooms of a school. They didn’t even bother with the supplies. It’s a school, a county-run school, and it was probably loaned out for free. The actors don’t do bad work outright. But it’s hard for actors to do particularly bad workâit takes an extremely bad director to make actors look bad. So, strictly speaking, it’s not the actors’ fault that the film is terrible. However, because they agreed to take on the roles, their film credits will include appearing in Armand. The film can’t be given a 0, but if it is, it deserves it. a 0 simply because it doesn’t deserve a 1. Incidentally, this is Norway’s contribution to this year’s Oscars. The Norwegian Oscar committee decided that this is the best Norwegian film of the year. How they came to this conclusion is a mystery, considering there have been quite a few bad Norwegian films this year, but Armand is the worst. There are plenty of bad Norwegian films to choose from that are much better than this one. For those who don’t know, Norway has no major international players. By comparison, both Sweden and Denmark have dozens. By traveling to the United States and being nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, this film proves to the entire film industry that Norway is, in many practical ways, a nation without a functioning film industry.