in 1915, 17-year-old Erling is sent to a notorious reformatory on the island of Bastøy in the fjord of Oslo, far from any semblance of civilization. The reformatory's director, Håkon, runs a sadistic system full of severe punishments, in which the adolescent inmates are used as cheap labour. When Erling finds out that the caretaker is abusing pupils, he incites an uprising and attempts to flee the island. This new film by Marius Holst - whose film "Dragonflies" won the NDR Award for Best Feature Film at the 2002 Nordic Film Days Lübeck - is based on a true story: In the winter of 1915, the Norwegian army deployed 150 soldiers, several torpedo ships and a submarine to strike down a rebellion on Bastøy. Grandiose landscape panoramas and striking acting performances bring the historical events back to life in an enthralling drama starring the Swedish superstar Stellan Skarsgård as the reformatory director Håkon and Norwegian shooting star Kristoffer Joner as caretaker Tor.