Number 24, now streaming on Netflix, is director John Andreas Andersen’s dramatization of Norway’s most decorated civilian war hero – Gunnar Sønsteby, codename “Number 24,” who for three years during the Second World War led an Oslo-based group of resistance fighters against the German occupation of their country. With Sjur Vatne Brean as Sønsteby in the past, and Erik Hivju in the present, as he reflects on the decisions that were made to disrupt the Nazis and enable freedom, Number 24 presents a more nuanced view of the experience of war, with a focus on individual bravery and not just big battles.
The Gist:“What else could we do? We had to try and fight back.” In the present, as he answers students’ questions about their country in 1940, when a Norwegian government led by Vidkun Quisling (Espen Lervaag) capitulated to German occupation, Gunnar Sønsteby (Brean) in the past makes the only decision he can. …