Review

Hauer stars in this rather stiff but absorbing film version of Nobel Prize-winning Knut Hamsun's novel. On the Isle of Man late in the 19th century, a mysterious, lonely, and possibly insane young stranger (Hauer) arrives in a small coastal community and begins to upset the townspeople's well-ordered lives. Kristel and Tushingham play the unattainable women he falls in love with. A bit muddled in execution, the film successfully creates an eerie, somber world where love and understanding prove to be tantalizingly elusive. (Dubbed)