The Greatest Thing

The film could be called "A Star is Born – the Original Story". It is based on one of the prime 19th Century Norwegian novels – the Nobel prize laureate Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson's "Fiskerjenten" ("The Fishing Girl") – and pursues a theme that made his contemporary Henrik Ibsen world famous: self-realization and the discovery of a vocation. Contrary to Ibsen's darkly uncompromising vision, however, this is an irreverent comedy, fast moving and full of charm, which at the same time makes spectacular use of dramatic Norwegian scenery – creating a truly romantic fable for today.

The story is set around 1860 and centers on the fatherless and exuberant young Petra. Petra grows up in a small town on the rugged northwestern coast of Norway, as the daughter of a formidable female innkeeper and fishmonger. In her late teens, in a cross between romantic infatuation and struggle for freedom, she suddenly finds herself engaged to no less than three of the town's most eligible young men. This brings the town to the brink of war, with street battles involving – among others – a Spanish ship's crew. Finally, Petra has to escape, run out of town by a furious mob.

After an ardous journey via the city of Bergen and through remote hills towards the capital of Christiania, she ends up at a vicarage high up in the mountains, where a widowed Danish priest has sought his vocation together with his daughter Signe, a few years Petra's senior. Through charm and reckless deception she wheedles her way into this little family, and while getting acquainted with literature and music and the wonderful world of the theatre, Petra's past gradually catches up with her. At the same time a profound friendship develops between Signe and her, protecting her from the recurring skepticism of the liberal minded but stern priest. But this friendship is put to its ultimate test when it becomes clear that they have found love in the same man: Petra's preferred suitor from her home town is also a family friend of the priest's and Signe's secret passion.

However, the story takes its final surprising turn and reaches a both dramatic and uplifting resolution when Petra – to the suitor's dismay and everyone else's consternation – chooses a future in the theatre – "the greatest thing in the world". And in a brief epilogue we see her take up her position on the stage of a large and bustling theatre in the metropolis of Copenhagen, ready for her first curtain to rise. (official distributor synopsis)