Oslo, August 31st (15)

Starring: Anders Danielsen Lie, Malin Crepin

A day in the life of a 34-year-old recovering drug addict might sound rebarbative, but under Joachim Trier's fluid and sympathetic direction it achieves something quite moving.

Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie), bright, personable, troubled, leaves his halfway house in the morning for a job interview in the city. There he reconnects with a handful of people from his past, notably best friend Thomas (Hans Olav Brenner) – now married with kids – and their long, desultory conversation about their time of life forms the piercingly acute centrepiece of the film. Trier, switching between sidelong camerawork that glances at strangers and a cool compositional style, gets to the heart of a young man's struggle with depression, loss of faith, life itself.