A Happy Day

• Hisham Zaman
• 113 min
• Norway, Denmark
• 2023
• Fiction

Blossoming romance confounds three teenage boys scheming an escape from a North Norwegian refugee center in Hisham Zaman's captivating dramedy.

Following the Dragon Award Best Nordic Film winners Before Snowfall and Letter to the King, Hisham Zaman returns to the Göteborg Film Festival with an equally warm and snow-covered film about dreams and friendship, drawing inspiration from his own experiences as a refugee. In A Happy Day, he earnestly tells the story of three unaccompanied boys at a center in the mountains. Hamid, Aras, and Ismail are young men with grand dreams, but they know that if nothing changes, they will be expelled from Norway as soon as they turn eighteen. In typical teenage fashion, they decide to escape, but the trio's natural dynamics begin to creak when the poetic Hamid falls for the rebellious newcomer Aida. Against a backdrop of indescribably beautiful winter landscapes, Zaman creates a charming and humorous film full of magic, teenage romance, and existential vulnerability.

- Jonas Holmberg

• Drama
• Landsbygd
• Flykt
• Romantik
• Vänskap