The Sunlit Night

The film opens with Frances being harshly evaluated by art evaluators, setting a tense tone for her career. Shortly after the critiques, she breaks up with her boyfriend and returns to her parents' apartment, marking a personal turning point. The scene juxtaposes professional pressure with family dynamics as she contemplates her future.

At a family dinner, Gabby announces her engagement, but more startlingly, Frances's father reveals that he and their mother are separating. The mood shifts from cheer to awkward silence as the family confronts these changes. He also voices concern about Gabby's future despite her being in law school.

The scene in the father's working area sets up Frances's conversation about Gabby's future while handing her a small studio space. Later a career counselor informs her she has been placed with a remote Norwegian artist, Nils Auerman. The move signals a drastic shift from New York to the North for her artistic development.

Frances travels to Norway to meet Nils, who picks her up and appears taciturn. She is awed by the landscape, comparing it to a painting and quickly settles into a trailer by the water. The first night is marked by perpetual daylight and sleep deprivation.

The next day they drive to a barn where Frances is to paint the interior while Nils handles the exterior. She observes a Viking Village and archers, though Nils forbids her to overstate her enthusiasm and warns against using the word amazing. The project challenges her perception of artistic method and tempo.

Frances shops for groceries and is struck by a clerk who resembles a Renaissance goddess, working behind the freezer. She attempts conversation but is met with indifference. Later Nils invites her to dinner, serving fish, and goats wander around her trailer.

Frances meets Yasha along the road; Nils refuses to pick him up and the group proceeds to the barn to begin long workdays from 7 am to 7 pm. The schedule emphasizes isolation, discipline, and the pressure to suppress personal and artistic impulses.

Frances encounters more of the Viking world, including archery practice, crafts, and a figure named Haldor who takes the Viking lifestyle very seriously. The encounter introduces a potential alternative sense of belonging and tension with Frances's modern sensibilities.

Nils berates Frances for her painting technique and pressures her to stay at the work site. Frances leaves and finds himself drawn to a restaurant, where she sees Yasha again, a man who seems lost and reminiscent of a painting. The episode marks a turning point in her sense of artistic control.

Nils apologizes with a flower and speaks of contrasting colors orange and blue, hinting at a reconciliation. They return to the barn to continue work, while Yasha appears again at the Viking museum, signaling a complicated triangle of emotions.

Frances and Yasha attend the funeral of Yasha's father, a Russian baker, held beside a Viking-themed seashore. They witness the coffin being placed in a replica Viking ship and a pyre being lit, a moving ceremony that deepens their bond.

Frances and Yasha spend a night on a hill, drink, and return to the barn to make love. When the Norwegian Art Institute inspectors arrive, they apologize and leave, while Nils stares in silence, processing the breach between personal life and professional scrutiny.

Frances returns to New York for her sister's wedding while her father voices anxious concerns about her autonomy and choices. Haldor wonders if he is a troll, and a local grocery clerk hints at a broader interpretation of Frances's subject, suggesting a new kind of kinship with the Norwegian world.

Frances receives a letter from Nils saying the barn has passed inspection and is now on the map, with a map appended. She smiles, realizing that her collaboration with Nils has produced something enduring and outwardly recognized.

The film closes with Frances's work displayed and hailed as exceptional by the art school evaluators who previously criticized her. The recognition reframes her creative identity and marks a personal and professional triumph after a long, uncertain journey.