Henrik Ibsen is Norway’s most famous and most-filmed playwright. The Norwegian Film Institute website lists no fewer than 53 national and international adaptations of his works. Ibsen, the father of modern psychological drama, created characters that translate easily from stage to screen. The complex and at times idiosyncratic character of the writer himself is showcased in this cinematic portrait made a hundred years after his death, with actor Fridtjof Såheim in the role of Ibsen. Ibsen’s creative approach and personal views are revealed in monologues in this film, which charts his life from the childhood trauma of his father’s bankruptcy and the family’s subsequent social marginalisation to the success and recognition of his old age, by which time he was a national institution and even a tourist attraction: tourists used to gather at Karl Johans Gate in Oslo to catch a glimpse of the bearded writer who lunched every day at the same time in the Grand Café.