Maria Vonnevie stars as a heroin addict who wants a better life for her daughter.

Norwegian director Margreth Olin’s first feature, Angel (Engelen), which last month won the People’s Amanda – Norway’s national film prize - will fly the Norwegian colours in the bid for an Oscar nomination as Best Foreign-Language Film.
 
Maria Bonnevie stars in Olin’s story of Lea, a young woman whose troubled childhood has made her a heroin addict. When she gives birth to Sonja, she wants to start a new life and provide her daughter with the protection she herself was deprived of, but it takes an impossible decision.
 
Angel is a perceptive, close and deeply moving portrait of a young woman who fights to live a decent life, even if it means to make the hardest choices,” explained the Norwegian five-member Oscar committee, headed by international manager Stine Helgeland, of the Norwegian Film Institute.
 
Internationally honoured for her documentaries, Olin launched Angel at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. It went on to win the Audience Award at Sweden’s Göteborg fest and garnered Bonnevie the Best Actress kudo at the Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn, Estonia..
 
Co-starring Gunilla Röör (who received the Best Actress Amanda), Antti Reini and Börje Ahlstedt, the film was produced by Thomas Robsahm for Speranza Film. Domestically released by Sandrew Metronome Norge, it reached 100,000 admissions. TrustNordisk handles international sales.