Pioneer

Pioneer is set in Norway in the early 1980s, as the country's oil boom is beginning. Large deposits of oil and gas have been found beneath the North Sea, and the authorities want to bring them ashore through a pipeline laid at great depth. Petter, a professional diver, joins the effort alongside his brother Knut. When a dive test ends in a tragic accident, the death is written off as an accident, but Petter does not accept that explanation. His search for answers draws him into a dangerous situation, and he comes to understand that powerful interests are involved and that his own life is at risk.

The film is a thriller directed by Erik Skjoldbjærg, his third feature after Insomnia (1997) and Prozac Nation (2003), and it came before Narvik (2022). The screenplay is by Hans Gunnarsson, Nikolaj Frobenius and Skjoldbjærg, with Christian Fredrik Martin producing. Aksel Hennie plays Petter, and the cast includes Wes Bentley, Stephen Lang, Stephanie Sigman, Jonathan LaPaglia and Ane Dahl Torp; twenty actors and 85 crew members are credited. Made for about 6 million dollars and running 106 minutes, it is a co-production involving Germany, Norway, Finland, France and Sweden.

Audience response to the film has been moderate: on IMDb it holds 6 out of 10 from around 5,500 votes, and on TMDB 5.9 out of 10 from 111 votes. A critics' rating of 5.6 out of 10 from 44 reviews places it close to the audience scores, suggesting a broadly similar, restrained reception on both sides.