Directed by the young Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier, “Reprise” tells the story of two young aspiring writers. Philip (Anders Danielsen Lie) and Erik (Espen Klouman-Hoiner) are best friends and aspiring novelists.

The first scene is a memorable one, resuming the dream of their life; they both stand on the street in front of a mailbox and put their manuscripts in. It is a future’s promise, their first step toward a writing career. They put all their hopes and aspirations into an envelope, which may be a ticket to success or a message in a bottle which may never return.

Trier tells in his unique stile the story of a friendship and of an unbound creativity which may be a form of madness. He uses flash-forwards and jump cuts, spicing up the film with inventive narrative tricks and pop-culture references, from Don DeLillo and “Rain Man” to Salinger and Ian Curtis.

“We're supposed to write and drink and hang out with friends and, if we feel the need, have fetishistic sex with prostitutes ...” Erick notes half jokingly of what was supposed to be the typical writer’s life. But the message of the film and the story of a road to success are more than that. The film also captures Philip’s depression, and Erick’s struggle to get his book accepted.

One of the interesting aspects of the film is the idea that you have the opportunity to see what the character experiences and how he relates to that experience almost in the same time, as the story jumps back and forth from the real course of an event and its potential mirror. There are two realities reflecting one another. The story line also alternates between realistic and fantasy sequences.

In “Reprise,” which won several awards in Norway, the audience will follow the story of two young aspiring novelists, the story of creating and re-creating a world using a lot of experimental techniques, the performance of a talented director who manages to draw real emotions from his actors, on the background of post-punk soundtrack.