Breaking the invisibility spell

I had no idea that such an enormous web had been spun down the side of the garden. I wouldn't have liked to have encountered it, especially as it's at face height. The rain today unmasked the spider's lair.

The London Film Festival (LFF) began this week. There are so many films to see, but the tickets are pricey and my time's restricted with some matinees happening when I'm working and other evenings filled in with other stuff. However, I booked two films to see. Both happen to be Norwegian, which I didn't notice until today.

I saw the first film tonight at the Renoir near Russell Square. It's a small cinema and not the best seating/viewing wise. I enjoyed a cup of tea in the bar before the film and was standing adjacent to a few LFF people who seemed to be schmoozing a few chaps who weren't wearing LFF badges. The programme didn't mention special guests, but I did wonder who these people were. Sure enough, before the film began, the chaps were introduced as the director, Erik Skjoldbjærg, and I think one of the producers.

The film, Pioneer, is an edge-of-your-seat, claustrophobic thriller that draws on several different true stories from the 1970s when Norway and the US were trying to pipe oil from the North Sea to the Norwegian mainland. During this time, around 100 divers lost their lives and many more were mentally and physically damaged by the experiments corporations put them through to ensure the divers could function at deep-sea levels. The divers weren't told what was in the gases they were breathing. At the moment, four divers are suing the Norwegian state and are having their case heard at the high court. Once completed, the pipeline made Norway the richest nation in the world. The director said that without those riches he, as a Norwegian, would have had a very different life. Every Norwegian is from the 1970s onwards is shaped by the efforts and suffering of the pioneer divers.