A corporate recruiter’s double life as an art thief spirals into a deadly game
In short: Roger Brown is Norway’s top headhunter, but his lavish lifestyle is funded by stealing fine art. When he targets a rare painting owned by a former special forces operative, his carefully constructed world collapses. What follows is a frantic, darkly comic survival story that became Norway's highest-grossing film ever.
Directed by Morten Tyldum and based on the 2008 novel by Jo Nesbø, the 2011 thriller Headhunters follows Roger Brown, a man balancing a high-stakes corporate career with a secret life as a thief. The plot ignites when Roger attempts to steal a lost Rubens painting from Clas Greve, a candidate he is vetting for a CEO position. The situation turns lethal when Roger discovers that Greve is not only a former member of a specialized tracking unit but is also involved with his wife, Diana.
The film is noted for its tight, character-driven narrative, which Roger Ebert praised for focusing on human behavior rather than relying solely on kinetic stunts. Production was a lean affair, filmed in and around Oslo over 40 days on a budget of 30 million NOK. Facing a shortage of funds for necessary aerial photography, the production team creatively repurposed and digitally modified footage originally captured for a Swedish adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to complete the film.
Upon its release in August 2011, Headhunters achieved massive commercial success, selling over 557,000 tickets in Norway. It earned critical acclaim both domestically and internationally, securing a 93% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film made history as the first Norwegian production to receive a BAFTA nomination for Best Film Not in the English Language, cementing its status as a landmark in Norwegian cinema.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Headhunters (film)
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