Fantastic Fest 2010

Director Thomas Malling, Star Emil Johnsen and Producer Eric Vogal Live in Attendance!

Diplomat. Spy. Ninja? In 1984 Norwegian diplomat Arne Treholt was convicted of high treason and selling state secrets to the Soviet Union and Iraq. The conviction carried with it a twenty year prison term, eight of which he would serve before being pardoned in 1992. Though the circumstances of the original trial and conviction have long been disputed and Treholt has steadily maintained his innocence, any review has been denied and Treholt now lives in exile in Cyprus.

This is true. Also true is that through the Cold War period NATO and the CIA secretly operated what are known as Stay-Behind Forces throughout Europe, forces intended to function as a built-in resistance should the Russians invade, forces which are now known to have conducted terrorist attacks on friendly soil to stoke fear of Soviet invasion and allow the military and secret services influence across the region. In 1978 Norwegian police discovered a large cache of weapons on the territory of Hans Otto Meyer, a Norwegian Intelligence Service officer believed to be the head of the Norwegian Stay Behind Force. What these arms were intended for was never clear.

Enter Thomas Cappelen Malling, filmmaker. A child of the Cold War era, Malling has looked back over the claims of the day and declared them all ridiculous.. So ridiculous, in fact, that he would like to propose an alternate history. Perhaps Treholt was not a spy at all. Perhaps when he said he was Deputy Foreign Minister in the Bureau of Maritime Affairs what he really meant was that he was the leader of a secret ninja force established by King Olav himself

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