Man trenger ikke jobbe i Norge

You do not have to work in Norway

A fictional documentary about young people in the Nav system

Norwegian society expects you to contribute. From the cradle to the grave, we are taught how to contribute to the community, and fit ourselves into the ranks of profitable tax payers. If you unexpectedly fall out, the safety net does its job to bounce you back up and back in line. Yet, even before Covid, unemployment and alienation were a growing problem among young people.

Premise and style

The series takes place at NAV's youth services in Horten Municipality. Horten is known to most as just a sign along the E18. It's not the village, it's not the big city. There is a municipal municipality in the middle, which for years has been at the Norwegian top for unemployment among young people. A fictional filmmaker comes here to document everyday life as a young person on social assistance. With a complex social problem at the bottom, Man does not need to work in Norway is a dark comedy. Not like The Office, more like the BBC series This Country. A fictional documentary bordering on found footage. Not like the Agency, more like the Trollhunter. The series balances between everyday comedy and the seriousness of having fallen outside, and the unpolished and honest style invites the audience inside the doors. This way we laugh all the way along and never stop.

The episodes

Each episode will be based on a NAV theme; Mapping and CVs, interview training, free labour, competence requirements, bureaucracy, social heritage, obligation to be active, etc. The youth center is the focal point of the series, but the characters also embark on a number of antics in the Horten area; Whether it's to the Viking Festival in Borre or over to Moss with the bastøferga to buy the leaf roast plate. In the initial phase of the series, we follow the local trophies (and best friends) Kenneth and Bjørn Esben, as well as the youth contact Linn and her warm-hearted and all-consuming struggle to get the participants into work. Among them, we meet the Syrian war refugee Farman and his encounter with Norwegian working life, and Tonje, a game-addicted and identity-seeking girl with social anxiety. The core episode is here; at the intersection between being young at Nav, the specifics of being from Horten, and the character traits of the main characters.

Story

Primarily, the series is a slice-of-life insight into unemployment and job hunting in Horten, with a humorous and warm-hearted look into the shadow side of the welfare society. This struggle against a knotty bureaucracy and a job market with an ever-higher door threshold ultimately makes up the story of Linn, Kenneth, Bjørn Esben, Farman and Tonje.