AllMovie

Two men square off in a courtroom battle that really began during World War II in Norway. Sverre Nordvaag (Joachim Calmeyer) knew the other man, Reider (Rolf Soeder) for awhile during the war but when they parted company, Nordvaag turned his mind to making a profit off the war, and Reider decided to help the resistance movement -- maybe a morally correct decision, but of great emotional cost since it drove him to alcoholism. Nordvaag was acquitted of the crimes he committed during the war years, and when Reider sees him decades later he attacks him in a rage. Nordvaag has become an influential businessman, and Reider is anything but. The inequalities continue as a young reporter tries to expose Nordvaag's history and finds that his corporate colleagues are power-brokers that close ranks -- perpetuating a public myth in spite of the private reality. Reider seems doomed to lose, both inside and outside the courtroom.