Set during Christmastime, “Night Ride” was shot throughout the course of a few days in December, 2019, in the town of Trondheim, Norway.
Even the most fateful decisions can begin with an innocent impulse. One moment, you’re stepping onto an empty tram to escape the chill of a winter’s night. The next moment, you’re driving off with it.
“Night Ride,” a narrative short set during Christmastime in Norway, opens with a flurry of snow. We see a little person in a green coat, Ebba, trudging toward a station, hugging herself for warmth. She bounces from one foot to the other and sucks in her breath. A tram approaches and wheezes to a stop; a driver with a formidable beard steps out. “Can you let me in?” Ebba asks. “Sorry, the tram leaves in half an hour,” he responds with a shrug. “It’s freezing out here,” Ebba says before he ambles off toward the rest room. After Ebba surreptitiously steps inside and attempts to warm up, she finds herself suddenly operating a moving tram as it winds through the dark of the night.
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“Night Ride” was shot throughout the course of a few days in December, 2019, in the town of Trondheim, Norway. Heidi Arnesen, a producer on the film, told me over Zoom about the challenge of finding a location: “In Oslo, they said, ‘No, we don’t want to show that it’s that easy to steal a tram.’ ”
Ebba’s evening soon gets even more complex. When she stops for passengers, a group of rowdy young men step aboard, along with a trans woman named Ariel. One of the men sits next to Ariel and begins hitting on her; they talk about going home together. Moments later, at a red light, the man finds out that Ariel is not who he thinks she is, and his embarrassment curdles into rage. Ebba is confronted with another decision in her improbable night: Say something, or keep driving? “Driver?” Ariel pleads. “Please, can you do something?” Ebba closes the curtain and turns up the radio, keeping a worried eye on the rearview mirror. The tram rolls past buildings strung with holiday lights while the harassment escalates, over the saccharine cheer of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”
Eirik Tveiten, the director of “Night Ride,” said that he hopes the film will inspire people to find the courage to speak up when they see someone being harmed. “Often, it seems easier to mind our own business when people in our community fall victim to prejudice, ostracization, and systemic persecution,” Tveiten said. Ebba is in a particularly vulnerable position from which to take a stand. The safest thing to do would be to stay quiet. Ultimately, though, her conscience demands another choice.
“Night Ride,” which won Best Narrative Short at the Tribeca Film Festival this year, isn’t about harassment, or little people, Arnesen told me. “It’s a story about taking a stand and trying to live up to the responsibility you have as a human being towards other human beings who are being harassed.” Even when the consequences might be severe. Even when it’s been a long night, and you’ve stolen a tram.
Sourse: newyorker.com
