99% Honest

2008, Rune Denstad Langlo, 74 minutes, Norway

Emir, Amina, Haji, and Assad are all members of the hip hop group Forente Minoriteter (United Minorities). The film follows them through their musical process and their ups and downs. The film crew has followed the band for years, resulting in an intimate encounter with four very charming and open young people. They are each very different, yet they find common ground in their passion for music and in the search for identity amid conflicting demands from friends, family, and Norwegian society. 99% Honest depicts one facet of contemporary Norway in an unexpected, warm, unbiased, and moving way.

Rune Denstad Langlo (b. 1972) started his career in the film industry as a production assistant on a documentary about Norwegian polar hero Roald Amundsen in 1998. Since then, Denstad Langlo has become an experienced writer, director, and producer of documentaries, both television and feature, as well as dramatic film. He made his feature film debut with the award-winning North in 2009, which, among several other accolades, received the FIPRESCI award for Best Film in the Panorama section at the Berlin International Film Festival and garnered Denstad Langlo an award for Best New Narrative Filmmaker at the Tribeca Film Festival.