Sentimental Value

Sentimental Value is a Norwegian drama directed by Joachim Trier and written with his longtime collaborator Eskil Vogt. The film centres on two sisters, Nora and Agnes, who are forced to reconnect with their estranged father Gustav, a once-celebrated film director who suddenly re-enters their lives. When Gustav tries to cast Nora in what he hopes will be his comeback film and she refuses, the situation grows even more complicated after he gives the role to an eager American actress. Like several of Trier’s films, it is deeply concerned with memory, family tension, emotional inheritance and the uneasy line between life and art.

The film is closely tied to Oslo, and not in a generic postcard way, but through a very specific sense of neighbourhood, architecture and lived-in atmosphere. Much of the story revolves around a villa in Thomas Heftyes gate in Frogner, where the production used the real exterior and parts of the first floor, while the bedrooms and upper level were rebuilt on a stage. The central, historic “dragon style” villa, representing over a century of family history. To recreate the house across different decades, seasons and emotional moods, the team also worked at Gateway Studios in Drammen, just outside Oslo, using virtual production to extend the villa’s surroundings and digitally reconstruct the street, garden and wider Frogner environment. That combination of real Oslo locations and carefully controlled studio work gives the film a layered feeling of place, where the family home becomes just as important as the characters themselves. Other scenes were shot around the city, including upper Pilestredet, Lindern, and Lorry, with additional scenes in Deauville, France, and Strömstad, Sweden.

Map

Locations