THE MAN IN THE ICE
“Give me my robe; put on my crown,
I have immortal longings in me.”
ANTONIO & CLEOPATRA - W. Shakespeare.
With these words the Queen of Egypt takes the basket of figs where hides the venomous serpent which will kill her. Her suicide will immortalize her in our imagination forever, and in this way, she will be able to turn her defeat into victory.
It might very well be that these very same “immortal longings” are precisely the driving force behind many of our actions and desires: to take this or that other job, to travel around the world, or to have children. Our job, putting your mark in this world, paternity, would therefore be different means to exorcise death and oblivion.
And this same search could also very well be what makes us look frantically for a meaning to our lives. Hamlet, prince of doubt on whether it is convenient to act or not, is a very contemporary character.
THE FROST’s main theme revolves around the price we have to pay for all those things we should have done but didn’t do, either because we were too frightened, or too engaged in other secondary matters. And the price could sometimes be, literally, our lives: it all depends on whether we end up feeling like a failure or not; on whether we can reach the conclusion that our lives have been time well spent.
It’s the price of our passage to immortality: we all have a ticket, but to each one of us the price is different.
For many years, Alfred Allmers has tried to quench his thirst of immortality by becoming a successful writer; in the process, he’s forgotten how to be a father. At the beginning of the film, he’s become fully conscious of this, and tries to sort the problem by abandoning all hope of becoming a writer, and instead fully dedicating himself to Eyolf, his son. Unfortunately he does not grasp yet that his new found will stems more from his frustration as a writer, than from genuine love for Eyolf: the child’s sudden death will force him to confront this lie and, at the same time, to pull his own Ariadne’s thread which will lead him through the labyrinth of his being to the deepest recesses of his life in order to find the deep origins of his fear and angst. Alfred is a very contemporary character in the sense that he suffers from a
“double vision”: his personality is dangerously stretched between the man he really is and the one he’d imagined himself to be: a famous author, a modern father, an ideal husband and brother, etc.
This malady equally affects, although in different measures, all the other characters in the movie. Rita Allmers wants to conjure the angst of becoming older, and it is in this sense that she wants to remain seductive and desirable, forever young in the eyes of her husband Alfred; that’s why she feels so uncomfortable about her own motherhood. Asta Allmers would like to perpetuate a relationship in the first place by subliming it through art; that’s why she’s become Alfred’s literary advisor and accomplice, and in the second place by becoming a responsible aunt to Eyolf, who compensates for his mother’s inadequacies. Eyolf’s death will leave this two women emotionally naked, bereft of any kind of excuse: Rita will have to fill the emptiness of her life without Alfred, and Asta will have to definitely heal a wound which has left her sterile both as a painter and as a person, perhaps forever.

Raúl is the counterpoint to the triangle formed by Rita, Asta and Alfred. He tries to make himself “useful” by playing at being “good”, and would like to fight his own loneliness by helping Rita and specially Asta, with whom he’s fallen in love. It’s his way to carry on living. But when the tension between both women becomes unbearable after Eyolf’s death, both of them refuse to be helped by him, and Raúl turns into some kind of lost wandering soul, with ho purpose whatsoever.
Is therefore THE FROST a tragedy? In the classical sense of the word, it is not: not a single one of the “heroes” dies at the end of the story. But the spirit of tragedy is what really fuels the actions of the characters as they all fight for some purpose in their lives, and they’re all animated like in classical tragedy by some sense of
“destiny”. As I wrote in the beginning, they’re all fighting for the meaning of their existence, for their “tickets” to immortality and its price.
And it’s only under this prism that the Man in the Ice acquires his full meaning in the film. When we first encounter him, he has the looks of a terminally ill cancer patient, who puts an end to his life by burying himself in a foetal position and stark naked in the ice. His presence has been announced before by the story the Guide tells the tourists at the beginning of the film, which incidentally is completely true.
It’s the story of the body of a man a few thousand yeas old found in pristine state of conservation in the glaciers of Switzerland.
The Man in the Ice opens and closes the story. It’s a powerful image which expresses Alfred’s quest for a meaning in his life, and, by extension, that of all the other characters. His foetal position can be read like a question mark carved on the earth, a question which has no appeal in the high tribunal of life and death, and ice, the necessary element which will preserve in this way his crucial decision for ever, protecting him from the erosion of time. The image of the Man in the Ice in his grave, wants to be an image of death, but also an ethical affirmation of life, a pictorial illustration of Hamlet’s “to be or not to be”, done with a simplicity and nakedness which is both mysterious and poetic.
It’s also, in a way, the graphic expression of some kind of solution THE FROST offers to the main issues described. Maybe the Man in the Ice has never existed; maybe he’s no more than a figment of Alfred’s imagination. He himself seems to describe him in this fashion, when he turns him into a personification of Death in the speech he makes to Rita at the end of the movie in the garden covered with frost. But exactly as Rita has explained before “What difference does it make to me whether the ghost I’ve seen is real or it’s just my imagination?” What really matters is my belief in it, and how this belief can help me shape my life anew. Because, as the Widow Rat says: “frost kills the fruit, but can also preserve the seed.” And it is maybe by fully accepting the truth of this fundamental paradox, that we can freely be carried away by the flow of love and all possibility to become immortal. The Man in the Ice is also the image of this truth and hope.
That’s why for me the Man in the Ice is the image, which best accompanies the title of the film THE FROST: it articulates in a simple, powerful and effective way the magical essence of such an existential story.
FERRAN AUDÍ
Director of THE FROST.

Synopsis
After the accidental death of their only son, Rita and Alfred feel such remorse that they engage in a fierce fight of mutual destruction. Guilt confronts them with a painful recognition: obsessed by their selfish little needs, they forgot to love their son. As truth is revealed, all their inner demons are unleashed. They haunt and prick them on a road to hope or to damnation, whilst they desperately try to make amends for all those things they left undone in the past.
Technical Crew
Script Writer Ferran Audí; inspired by H. Ibsen’s play “Little Eyolf”
Norsk Version and Norsk consultant: Eva Mørkeset
Director
Cinematographer
Artistic Director
Editor
Musician & Composer
Representatives
Ferran Audí
David Omedes
Antonio Belart
Bernat Aragonés
Señor Viento
Spain:
Executive Producer: Raül Perales (ALTA REALITAT)
Co-producer: Maria Rosa Fusté (APUNTOLAPOSPO)
Associated Producer: TVC
Norway:
Co-producer: Eirik Vaage (FROST MEDIA FILM) & Lars
L. Marøy (Film fondet Fuzz)
Technical Information
Format
Ratio
Length
Genre
4K – Redone Camera
2:35
107 min.
Psychological Drama
Shooting
Language
Year
From March 2008 the 25 th until May 2008 the 17 th
English, Norwegian
2008

Characters & Cast
Trond Espen Seim – Alfred
Nationality: Norwegian
Film: Din til Døden (2008); Bitre Blomster (2007);
Isola (2006); Hawaii, Oslo (2004); Jeg er Dina (2002)
TV: Senkveld med Thomas og Harald (2006); Først & sist
(2004-2005); Store Studio (2004)
Awards: 2008 Amanda Award for Best Actor.
Alfred is a small town intellectual. For years now he’s been trying to finish his essay on the responsibility of man, which he sees as his life’s main achievement.
Frustrated by his inability to finish the book, and under pressure from his wife Rita, he decides to give up writing and concentrate all his efforts on the well-being of his only child Eyolf. When Eyolf dies, he will wallow desperately in anger and self-pity; his wrath will set him fiercely against his wife, and he turns for solace and consolation to his sister Asta. But Asta shall uncover the true nature of his need for her: the two brothers are in fact in love with each other and have been so far too cowardly to admit it. At the price of losing his sanity, he will have to fight his inner demons and his cowardice. Only by looking straight at himself in the eye and confronting his fear will he eventually find the means to punish himself and start his mourning process, a necessary step if he’s to rebuild his life.
Aitana Sánchez-Gijón – Rita
Nationality: Spanish
Film & TV Work: Oviedo Express (2007); The Nautical Chart
(2007); The Machinist (2005); Un homme, un vrai (2003);
Volaverunt (1999); The Chambermaid in the Titanic (1997); A walk in the clouds (1995); La regenta (TV series 1995)
Awards: Silver Seashell San Sebastian International Film
Festival; Fotogramas de Plata Best TV Actress; Award of the
Spanish Actors Union; Barcelona Film Award.
Rita is a middle-class housewife deeply in love with her husband Alfred. She’s been married to him for quite some time now; however she still feels that Alfred is emotionally and sexually distant from her. Therefore, she feels compelled to seduce him over and over again every day; she becomes jealous of his writing and shortly afterwards of their own child. Eyolf’s death will trigger in her a harrowing and complex process of self-examination which threatens to utterly destroy her. Only her courage and determination to face up to the truth can save her from disaster.

Eva Mørkeset – Asta
Nationality: Norwegian
Training: Skandinavian Theater School (Copenhagen) &
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (London)
Film & TV Work: Mørkets gjerninger (TV Series), Anmäld försvunnen (TV Series), Malstrøm (BBC-NRK), Snatch by
Guy Ritchie, Sleepy Hollow by Tim Burton.
Stage Work: ¡Ay, Carmela!
by J.S Sinisterra (London);
The Visitor by Stig Larsson ; Demons by Lars Noren.
Asta is a painter and an arts teacher at the local arts school. Her inspiration seems to have dried up long ago. On the other hand she also has the reputation of a cold and solitary spinster. She feels very responsible for her nephew, Eyolf, and is quite critical of her sister-in-law’s upbringing of him. But Eyolf’s death will suddenly cast a new light on the true nature of her relationship to Eyolf himself, Rita and her brother Alfred. She now realises she was using Eyolf and her misgivings of Rita as a means to keep close to Alfred to whom she now knows she’s always been sexually attracted. She becomes painfully aware that this unrequited and secret passion has dried up her art and turned her into a solitary woman incapable of loving anybody else. She decides therefore to fly far away and start a new life in the loneliness of the north. Maybe then she will be able to reassess her life.
Tristán Ulloa – Raúl
Nationality: Spanish
Film & TV Work: Un lugar lejano (2008) ; Mataharis
(2007); Salvador (2006); El destino (2006); D’Artagnan et les trois mousquetaires (TV Movie) (2005); El juego de la verdad (2004); Volverás (2002); Lucía and the Sex
(2001); Mensaka (1998)
Awards: Fundación Aisge 2005 “A dos generaciones”; Best
Actor in the 8 th edition of the Tolouse Festival for
Mensaka; Special mention of the jury as Best Actor in
2003 for Volverás at Mar de Plata Film Festival.
Raúl is Rita’s brother and consequently, Eyolf’s Spanish uncle. As a computer programmer, he works at the same school as Asta Allmers. He is profoundly in love with Asta, whom he courts sincerely and respectfully. He is a noble, brave and caring man whose honesty and sincerity contrasts with the hypocrisy and tortured mind of Alfred Allmers. Raúl offers Asta a route to escape her psychological and emotional conflict, a route that Asta refuses to accept. Nevertheless, we will discover at the end of the story that there will always exist a profound complicity between both of them, and who knows if it could possibly establish love in the future.

Bibi Andersson – The Widow Rat
Nationality: Swedish
Training: Terserus Drama School; Royal Dramatic
Theatre School, Stockholm (Sweden)
Film & TV Work: Persona by Ingmar Bergman, Brink of life by Ingmar Bergman; As If I Didn’t Exist by
Klaus Härö; The Return of the Dancing Master (TV
Series), The Lost Prince (TV Series); Anna by Erc
Wedersøe.
Awards: Cannes Film Festival Award – Brink of
Life .
The Widow Rat drives around the country in her dishevelled old truck with her mate, Mopsemand. This strange and freaky character seems somehow to hold the keys of destiny and has a direct relationship with the souls of the dead and the underworld. Her presence is very unnerving: she seems to be as capable of good as she is of evil: somehow she seems to have cast a spell on Little Eyolf, driving him to his watery grave. On the other hand, she will become the only source of solace and consolation to Rita, allowing her to start her healing process.
Fermí Reixach – Mopsemand
Nationality: Spanish
Film & TV Work: El Greco (2007); Mar de Fons (2007 Tv series); El Coronel Macià (2006); Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006); L’est de la Brúixola (2005);
Darkness (2002); Mi Dulce (2001); Faust (2001);
Volavérunt (1999).
Mopsemand is The Widow Rat’s companion, a scruffy old man, apparently halfwitted, only capable of babbling a disjointed speech. In Ibsen’s original piece, this character is a dog that The Widow Rat uses to catch rats and mice. In our version, we have humanized this character and at the same time given him a new connotation and very special presence on screen. This way, Mopsemand becomes a marginal character, whom the rest fear and look down on, although at the same time he seems to be the only human that completely and harmoniously forms part of nature; the only one that can really have contact with Eyolf; and that during the story will become the mute and unmoral witness of the tragedy that will develop after the boy’s death.

DIRECTOR’S NOTE
THE FROST is my first feature length film project. The main theme, the guilt we feel for the things we did not care or could not do in the past, is quite close to the theme of my first short film, TERESA AND THE UNDEAD, where an old woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease travels back in time to come to terms with the disappearance of her husband in war.
When I first approached the project, I very soon realised how close these connections are within me, and how deep they run in my work. I’ve also been very careful in choosing it as my first feature film; I feel that this co-production between
Spain and Norway is also very representative of my theatrical track record so far, having directed theatre in Norway on several occasions and being more and more acquainted with its culture and its people.
I know Ibsen’s original story, LITTLE EYOLF, the main source of inspiration for THE
FROST, is a universal story; Ibsen is the world’s most performed dramatist after
Shakespeare for a very good reason!
All of us in the team know this is a movie for actors. I’m an actor myself, and have worked extensively as acting coach and theatre director: I know my strength lies in my ability to extract dynamic and compelling performances from the actors, and so far all of them have made me the honour to trust me with their talent.
I am very confident that the support of a highly professional artistic and technical team will be of great help to overcome any shortcomings I might encounter in this my first experience as a feature film director
The amazing support and encouragement THE FROST has gathered so far from such an international team of very talented and reputable artists, actors, cinematographer, editor, producers, etc; is a major source of motivation and positive energy. It puts the project on the right and only possible course: our challenge is to hit audiences worldwide with the powerful story we all feel such an urgent need to tell.

Biofilmography Ferran Audí
Director, Producer & Actor. Trained as an actor at the Institut del Teatre in
Barcelona. He became a theatre director in 1987, when he won the Catalan
Government’s award for the best new Director’s Project of the Year. He later lived in the United Kingdom for about ten years, where he founded the company
HEIGHTENED REALITY, and alongside his acting career, directed plays in Norway and Spain. In 2005 he directs his first short film, TERESA AND THE UNDEAD. Ferran
Audí is a member of the Col·legi de Directors de Cinema de Catalunya (Catalan
Cinema Director’s Guild) and Academia de Cinema Català. THE FROST is his first feature film.
Company Information
ALTA REALITAT (SPAIN)
Artistic Directors Ferran Audí & Jordi Cortés
General Manager Raül Perales
Log-line To pursue new groundbreaking creative ideas, to give support to new drama and contemporary authors, to work towards a further blending of artistic disciplines, to upheld our humanistic and multi-cultural vocation.
Theatre (1998-2008)
¡Ay, Carmela! (UK)
Oda, a Hell of a Woman (Norway)
East of the Sun, West of the Moon (Norway)
Ild Dragen (Norway)
Perdida en los Apalaches (Spain)
IQ 100 (Spain)
Freaks (Spain)
El Poema de Nadal (Spain)
Dance (1998-2008)
Lucky (UK)
Happy Hour (Spain)
Ölelés (Spain- Germany)
Prestidigitaccions (Spain)
Tara / The Forest (Spain)
Wall & Piece (Spain)
Film (2003-2008)
Dobles (Short Film. Spain)
The Deceit is in the Eye (Video Dance. TVC. Spain)
Teresa and the Undead (Short Film. Spain)
The Frost (Feature Film. Spain)

Awards City of Barcelona Award 2004 for Ölelés
Feria de Huesca Award 2005 to the Best Dance Piece for Ölelés
Best Performer in Dublin Festival 2005 for Lucky
Barcelona Visual Sound 2005 for The Deceit is in the Eye
FROST MEDIA FILM
Film and Photography:
Postproduction and Animation:
Cinema & TV (2003-2008)
Storytime (shor-movie)
Go West (documentary for NRK)
Uredd (10 program series for NRK)
Silver treasure (documentary)
Sommeren i mitt liv (documentary)
The Frost (feature film)
Animation and Motion Design (2003-2008)
Maritime Studies (Ad)
Møre og Romsdal Fylke (Ad)
Eirik Vaage
Torbjørn Håskjold
IK Reklame (Ad)
Maritim Forening Søre Sunnmøre (Ad)
JCI – National Congress 2008 (Ad)
APUNTOLAPOSPO
C.E.O.
Artistic Technical Director
Rosa Maria Fusté
Jose Maria Aragonés
Log-line This leading audiovisual post-production studio focuses on research and innovation in all aspects of digital processing of images and sound. It has an R&D department for proprietary engineering, and it is a leader in Spain in JPEG 2000 mastering for digital cinema.
Advertising (2004-2008)
Repsol, Moto GP, Nike, Puig, Palau de la Música, La Caixa, among others.
Cinema (2004-2008)
Eskalofrío
The Frost
Road Spain
Soy un Pelele
Una Cierta Verdad

Las dos vidas de Andrés Rabadán
Cher Ami
Television (2004-2008)
El pallasso i el Führer
Rumors
Les veus del Panamo
3D Stereoscopic
Magic Journey to Africa
Balls Out
Awards Sant Jordi Award for Innovation