The pitch-black comedy In Order of Disappearance about a gangland war between Norwegian drug dealers and the Serbian mob delighted the Berlin film festival on Monday.
Veteran director Hans Petter Moland, a Norwegian who lived in the United States for more than a decade, called his movie a satire about wealthy countries' attitudes toward immigration.
It tells the story of Nils, a Swedish snow-plough operator and recent winner of his tiny village's Citizen of the Year award played by Stellan Skarsgard. His Norwegian neighbour even tells him straight-faced that he is a "well-integrated immigrant".
But when Nils' son is murdered for getting mixed up in a dispute over drug smuggling at the airport where he works, Nils embarks on a grisly hunt for revenge against a band of criminals led by a fussy vegan known as the Count (Pal Sverre Hagen).
As the corpses pile up, Nils inadvertently touches off a blood feud with the clan of a Serbian mafia boss called only Papa (Swiss actor Bruno Ganz).
The humour comes from the absurd culture clashes and laconic dialogues among the gangsters reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino which drew big laughs during a packed screening at the festival.
Skarsgard, who was also at the festival for the premiere Sunday of the director's cut of Lars von Trier's English-language Nymphomaniac Volume I, said hopscotching across cultures and languages was good exercise for an actor.
"Of course it's always easier to work in your mother tongue," he said. "You have to work harder when you work in a foreign language. But I feel more and more comfortable in English."
As for working in Scandinavian films, he quipped: "The Norwegians think I'm a Norwegian with a speech impediment."
Ganz said Moland helped him cover up his mistakes delivering lines in Serbian.
"Hans Petter said that we can deal with language problem by giving me a nice scar from a gunshot through the throat - that way regardless of what language you're speaking people won't understand you anyway," he said.
In Order of Disappearance is one of 20 films vying for the Golden Bear top prize at the 11-day festival, to be awarded Saturday.
