Edith Carlmar

Biography

Edith Carlmar (Edith Mary Johanne Mathiesen) was an Norwegian actress and Norway's first female film director. She grew up in the eastern part of Oslo, in poor conditions, alone with her mother. However, her mother was a culturally oriented woman, so Edith was introduced to music, dance, and the theatre at an early age. At 19, she married Otto Carlmar, whom she met through her mother. In her early twenties, she made her debut as an actress at Det Nye Teater in Oslo. There she came into contact with Tancred Ibsen, and her interest in film began to take shape when he offered her a position in film production.

During the war, she worked as a production manager on several films, and in 1946 she traveled to England to study production management and directing. In 1949, she and her husband founded Carlmar Film A/S, where she was the director and he was the producer. She made her directorial debut in 1949 with Death Is a Caress.

Throughout her career, Edith Carlmar directed ten feature films and several short documentary films. Her thematic focus often depicted contemporary Norwegian society in the postwar years, frequently highlighting strong female characters. Many of her films were major audience successes, and the productions often made a profit, even without state funding. Fools in the Mountains remains one of Norway’s greatest box office successes.