International Authors' Stage: Dag Johan Haugerud (NO)

In just a few years, Norwegian Dag Johan Haugerud has excelled as an award-winning film director, playwright and author.In Denmark, he is best known for his critically acclaimed and award-winning film trilogy Sex, Dreams and Love, which has established him as yet another major film director on the Norwegian cultural scene.

Haugerud has won the Norwegian Amanda Award several times, and he is the first Norwegian filmmaker to have won the Nordic Council Film Prize twice, both in 2020 and 2024. In 2025, Dreams became the first Norwegian film to win the Golden Bear for Best Film at the Berlin International Film Festival.

An intense novel with compelling dialogue

While Haugerud's play Sykdom og sosial nød is playing on the national stage in Oslo, his novel Pastoral Care has attracted many readers, including in Denmark. Pastoral Care (2026) is an intense and perceptive novel about identity, class, sexuality and the belief that it is possible to become a good person if only you try hard enough. The story explores love, friendship and the courage to give without expecting anything in return.

Haugerud's dialogue is captivating, drawing readers into the novel's many conversations - conversations centred on the pastoral care offered by the deacon Thomas. As a reader, however, there is nothing sad about the novel. On the contrary, it is characterised by a subtle humour that neither ridicules nor exposes its characters.

Dag Johan Haugerud was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2026 for the novel. In its citation, the prize committee wrote:

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"Sjelesorg is a novel whose understated style possesses a rare elegance. It raises fundamental and universal questions about relationships, desire, longing, faith and doubt. In many ways, the novel is about the fundamental loneliness of life – and about how the human need for close relationships, and the absence of them, can lead us astray in our own lives."

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Participants

Dag Johan Haugerud

Dag Johan Haugerud is a successful Norwegian film director who has received several international film awards for the trilogy Sex, Dreams, Love, widely regarded as a landmark of Norwegian cinema. He has won the Nordic Council Film Prize twice and is now nominated for this year's Nordic Council Literature Prize for his novel Pastoral Care. Still one of Norway's most remarkable creative talents at the age of 61.

Lise Bach Hansen

Lise Bach Hansen is the Head of Talks and the Literature Stage at The Black Diamond. Through her work, she explores the connections between art, culture, politics and democracy, often with a particular focus on the Nordic countries. She has co-authored several books, including Sæt Scenen: Kunsten at kuratere live events.