Director’s

Statement

Heroin City began with a simple question: how could a city like Bodø become one of Norway's hardest-hit communities during the heroin epidemic of the 1990s? Growing up in Bodø, I heard fragments of this story throughout my life. There were names, memories and rumours, but rarely a complete picture. The deeper I looked, the more I realised that an entire chapter of the city's history was at risk of being forgotten.

Rather than creating a conventional documentary built solely around interviews, I wanted to immerse the audience in the world these people experienced. By combining documentary interviews with cinematic dramatizations, Heroin City seeks to preserve factual authenticity while allowing viewers to emotionally step inside a period that shaped countless lives. At its heart, this film is not about heroin. It is about people. It is about vulnerability, friendship, loss, survival and the unexpected consequences that can follow when a community changes. I wanted to move beyond stereotypes and headlines, allowing those who lived through these events to reclaim their own stories.

Throughout the filmmaking process, I carried a deep responsibility toward everyone who entrusted us with their memories. My goal was never to sensationalize the tragedy, but to approach it with honesty, empathy and respect. I hope audiences leave the film with a greater understanding, not only of what happened in Bodø, but of how addiction, circumstance and human resilience intersect in every society. History matters, especially the parts we'd rather forget.