Hans Petter Moland to adapt Knut Hamsun’s classic 'Growth of the Soil' for 4 ½

The internationally-acclaimed director Hans Petter Moland (In Order of Disappearance, Out Stealing Horses, A Somewhat Gentle Man) is set to write himself the screen adaptation of Knut Hamsun’s classic ‘Growth of the Soil’ (‘Markens Grøde’) which secured him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920.

This will be the second time Hamsun’s literary masterpiece is brought to the silver screens after the 1921 eponymous Danish feature by Gunnar Sommerfeld.

The epic novel from ‘the father of modern literature’ tells of Isak, as he settles in the untamed wilderness of rural Norway and gradually tames the barren soil, building a home with his wife Inger and ultimately a legacy.

The Norwegian Film Institute’s film consultant Tom Guldbrandsen said “Hans Petter Moland has the potential to make the definitive film adaptation of Knut Hamsun's novel ‘Markens grøde’, focusing on the characters Isak and Inger and their love story. The film will mainly be based on the first part of the novel, where Isak and Inger build the farm Sellanraa from scratch.”

Producer Håkon Øverås from the company 4 ½, said Moland has been working several years on the screen adaptation. “It is yet another script from Hans Petter where he transfers the atmosphere from book to film with all that it entails; love, drama, distress, violence and survival. It will be epic!” claimed the producer who worked earlier on Moland’s award-winning Out Stealing Horses based on a novel by Peter Petterson. “It will be a great and important film that also reflects our times,” he said.