1986 film

It's winter in a suburb. A housewife is brutally raped. A young woman becomes a victim of attempted rape. The Police tighten noose on Anders, a young road worker who was seen on the site in both cases. The two women think they recognize him in the lineup, and police investigators use all their strength to solve the case. Anders is a common and simple individual. He could be any youth. The meeting with the ongoing investigation and the solid judiciary, forces him out of a seemingly monotonous, habitual life and forces him to react and think.

This mellow comedy is the third entry in filmmaker Anja Breien's "Wives" series and stars the same three actresses who appeared in the first two. This episodic film begins with flashbacks to the 1975 film Wives and scenes from 1985's Wives: Ten Years Later. Now ten more years have passed and they are comfortably ensconced in middle age. They have gathered to hold a surprise birthday for Kaja aboard an Oslo streetcar. The three haven't seen each other in ages and much of the story focuses on their discussions of their disparate lives. Every word, smile and tear they share affirms the depth of their lasting friendship.

Ten years have passed since our three heroines' first outing in 1975. Now the women meet at yet another class reunion. Not surprisingly, they are still unwilling to call it a night after the party is over. Husbands and children must celebrate Christmas as best they can, while the women spend quality time drinking and taking stock of their lives.

"The subject of "Wives" is that of those who here consider themselves a subject-race: women. It is a Norwegian film that makes its points far more effectively on behalf of that downtrodden species - the film's suggestion, not mine - because it can afford to joke about its ideas.... And it also see that men, too, have their problems in the way society sees the martial state.
The story begins with a class reunion and ends with the feeling that it has also examined the union that binds and polarises both sexes. It curious mixture of frivolity and seriousness doesn't always work, but it is certainly the best hilm i have yet seen on the subject of Women's Lib.
The woman director, Anja Breien, had followed the progress of three girl-friends who, after the reunion, decided to go on a spree. They are delightfully differentiated and utterly likeable. Mie, whose clowning disguises her vulnerability; Katja hiding her identity behind pregnancies; Heidrun, the proletarian who is too easily swayed by emotion.....It is a caring film, not only about its characters but about people as people."
(Tom Hutchinson, Sunday Telegraph)