Part of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s mission is to foster greater understanding through world cinema. This year 72 Foreign Language films were submitted for Golden Globes consideration. Here is an overview of one of them.

The Wave is the first disaster movie out of Norway and its premise is based on a frightening reality: scientists know that the Åkernes Mountain, above the beautiful fjord of Geiranger, will some day cause a huge rockslide which will in turn create a tsunami. The tiny town of Geiranger will be gone.

In Roar Uthaug’s movie, it happens. Kristoffer Joner plays Kristian Eikfjord, a geologist who works at the early warning center supervising the mountain. Joner will also soon be seen among the cast of The Revenant, playing the trapper Murphy alongside Leonardo di Caprio and Tom Hardy.

As The Wave begins, Kristian and his wife Idun (Ane Dahl Torp) are packing up to move to Stavanger, where he is taking a job in the oil business. Stavanger by the way is called “Little Texas” in Norway. Their teenage son Sondre does not want to move, but their young daughter Julia is excited.

When the mountain starts grumbling, Idun is at her job at the tourist hotel in Geiranger with her son, who just before disaster strikes, goes skateboarding in the hotel’s basement with earphones on. Kristian and daughter Julia are on the opposite side of Geiranger, as Julia wanted to spend the last night in their old house, something the father lovingly allows, while at the same time being concerned of strange happenings in the fjord, like water levels receding.

Kristian’s boss does not want to warn people, as it will ruin the tourist season. He pays the ultimate price. Geiranger is one of Norway’s busiest tourist attractions, included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Taking a ferry boat across the 9.3 miles/15 km long fjord from Geiranger to Hellesylt, as I’ve done, you’ll see beautiful water falls pouring down steep mountain sides, like The Seven Sisters, The Veil and The Suitor. Both of these towns face extinction when the real tsunami happens.

In the film, as in real life, there is just a 10-minute window for people to reach higher ground before the tsunami hits. Kristian and Julia try for higher ground while Idun is searching for Sondre when the enormous force of water crushes the hotel.

An enormous fight to survive and find each other begins.

Aud