Idioten

Idioten is a public park and recreational area on Valleløkken near Adamstuen in the St. Hanshaugen borough of Oslo, Norway. The sloping park lies between General Birchs gate and Anton Schjøths gate, descending towards Ullevålsveien. The unusual name originated from the institutions that once existed on either side of the area: one was the Institut for aandssvage Gutter, an institution for boys with intellectual disabilities, while special-education classes were held nearby at Bolteløkka. Children attending such institutions were historically referred to by a term that later became offensive, and the open ground between them consequently acquired the nickname Idioten. The area was developed as a public recreational space around 1930 and was formerly used for ski jumping and sledding, with organised ski-jumping competitions continuing into the early 1960s. Today it consists primarily of open lawns, a hillside, playground facilities and a gravel sports area. After decades as an unofficial local name, Idioten was formally adopted as the official name of the area in 2020.

Idioten appears in Oslo, August 31st (2011). The park is used for one of the film’s most important conversations, in which Anders meets his old friend Thomas and the two discuss adulthood, happiness, relationships and Anders’ increasingly bleak view of his own future. The bench used for the scene has since become one of the best-known filming locations associated with Joachim Trier’s Oslo trilogy.

In Oslo, August 31st (2011), originally released as Oslo, 31. august, Anders and Thomas sit together on a bench at Idioten after Anders visits Thomas and his family. Anders, a recovering drug addict who has been given leave from a rehabilitation centre to attend a job interview in Oslo, initially talks with Thomas about apparently happy people and the settled life Thomas has created with his wife and children. Thomas responds by describing the frustrations and compromises of his own domestic life, but the conversation gradually becomes much darker as Anders reveals how little hope he has for his own future and says that he is considering suicide. Thomas struggles to find an argument that will convince him otherwise and eventually asks Anders not to do anything stupid. The sequence, performed by Anders Danielsen Lie and Hans Olav Brenner, was filmed on one of the benches overlooking the sloping park. The scene has become particularly associated with the film, and the Idioten bench is now included in organised walks through Joachim Trier’s Oslo filming locations.

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