The producers of Chasing Berlusconi cannot be unaware that many people will assume their film is some kind of documentary about Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi. How many people will settle into their seats before snorting in surprise that the language is Norwegian and the subject matter is horse racing?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jZ_HT552oM
(Norwegian trailer)
To set the plot in motion a woman plunges her husband into debt. Bjarte (Edward Schultheiss) is a harness racer who appears to have put his glory days behind him. To extricate himself from the debt he decides to nobble a horse that has just been brought into the stable for whom he races. We head into a comedy where the police can’t find their siren and are more interested in collecting the receipts for their expenses than finding the horse.
When the humour subsides, much of the film concerns loan sharks with a penchant for sub-woofers who threaten violence. Director Ole Endresen has attempted to mix their threats with slapstick and actual violence. The mix doesn’t work.
Chasing Berlusconi is moderately entertaining, but at the end you feel that there wasn’t much point in what you have just seen. Especially if you were expecting an expose of Italian politics.
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