Christmas as Usual follows the story of Thea, who is planning on spending the holidays in her rural hometown in Norway, to celebrate with her family, but this year she’s bringing along Jashan, her Indian boyfriend, who proposes to her in the opening scene. The film is written and directed by Petter Holsen and explores themes of acceptance and love against the backdrop of the beautiful landscape of Norway, where it was filmed entirely.
Where was Christmas as Usual filmed?
The film is set in Norway at Thea’s family home so of course location work would all be shot there to create the authentic feel for the production. The director makes sure that we get to see plenty of snow and beautiful landscapes that add to the holiday feel of the movie.
Rauland
The majority of the film was shot in the former municipality of Rauland, which is now a part of the Vinje Municipality. With stunning vistas, the area is perfect for creating a festive feeling to the movie, without the crew having to build sets or stages.
Petter Holmsen’s Instagram page has a few shots taken in Rauland after the film had wrapped. Holmsen would say “That’s a wrap on “Christmas as Usual” — a romantic comedy inspired by the love story of my sister.”
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Oslo, Gardermoen
Noted in the credit scrawl, the film says locations were used for filming in Oslo and Gardermoen too.
Who directed and produced Christmas as Usual?
Christmas as Usual was written and directed by Petter Holmsen, and the story was inspired by real-life events that happened to his sister and her fiance. The writer-director would use his sister’s story as inspiration for the movie, exaggerating and embellishing some aspects to make a more interesting experience for viewers.
The named producers of the film were Kristian Strand Sinkerud, Espen Horn, and Jenny Victoria Jaern. Motion Blur Films is the company involved with bringing the film to our screens.
Who plays Jashan in Christmas as Usual?
Although a Norwegian film, you may be wondering about the actor playing Jashan, and where you have seen him before. The character is played by Kanan Gill, and you might recall he was in the YouTube comedy show Pretentious Movie Reviews with Biswa Kalyan Rath. In that series, he would review old Bollywood movies.
More prominently, you may have watched him recently in his recent comedy special on Prime Video called Keep It Real on in his 2020 Netflix special Yours Sincerely, Kanan Gill. He made his Bollywood debut with the release of Noor in 2017.
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