Odd Einar Ingebretsen Talks Haugesund Closer ‘Enough’

In Haugesund’s closing film “Enough,” a mother decides to break up with her grown-up daughter. 

“We had some test screenings before and someone said: ‘This woman is a psychopath!’ I don’t think so. What she does is extreme, but the film tries to explore this entire relationship. Maybe she does it to actually help her child?” says Norwegian director Odd Einar Ingebretsen ahead of the world premiere at the fest.

“I think it would feel different if it was a father and a son. We always think of motherly love as this ultimate feeling. It’s supposed to triumph over just about everything. But her arguments are quite logical – they just go around in circles.”

In the modest black-and-white drama, lensed by Cecilie Semec and written by Per Schreiner, thirtysomething Pia (Ine Marie Wilmann) visits her mother (Anneke von der Lippe) quite often. A bit too often, it turns out. 

Her mother is grateful-ish for all the help Pia provided after her father had left and she had to rebuild her entire existence post-divorce. But now, she wants her to move on and to focus on her own life for a change. Which, she states rather bluntly, hasn’t turned out all that well. 

“It’s not the kind of conversation you have in real life all the time, so yes, it feels harsh. But there’s some black humor in it as well. It’s a bit subdued, but it’s there,” says Ingebretsen, who decided to set his debut feature almost entirely inside one house. 

“It makes you feel closer to them,” he notices. 

“Louis Malle’s ‘My Dinner with Andre’ has always been a huge inspiration, or Richard Linklater’s ‘Before’ trilogy. It’s a cliché to say I love Bergman, but I do, and together with Per we share this admiration for [British playwright] Harold Pinter. I think Pinter and Per know how to [capture] characters who have communication issues or other barriers they aren’t able to deal with.” 

Ingebretsen produced the film with Schreiner for their company Odd og Per Film, trying to combine everyday problems with a suggestion of something “disturbing” plaguing this soon-to-be broken family. 

His protagonists don’t know how to express real anger and they don’t know how to express tenderness either – “They never hug. I guess she hasn’t been the most affectionate mother,” he observes – but he never wanted to judge them. 

“You could make this film more emotional, but I’m not a confrontational person either. I’m just not built this way. There is always this distance in Per’s writing, too. It feels familiar to me that they are communicating this way,” he admits. 

“Throughout this whole process, both of them felt like real people to me. They are complex and I hope the viewers will leave the cinema with a sense of ambiguity. That would make me happy, because who’s the ‘crazy’ one here? You are not entirely sure.”