Director Erik Poppe, one of Norway’s biggest exports, starring alongside Juliette Binoche in “1,000 Times Good Night” and the Golden Bear nominee “Utøya- July 22,” will open the Norwegian Film Festival in Haugesund on August 18 with his highly anticipated drama “Quisling – The Final Days,” ahead of the film’s international premiere at the Special Presentations in Toronto.

Although set in Norway during World War II, the film explores a current, pressing issue: the rise of the far right and the threat it poses to democracy.

It revolves around the last days before his execution on 24 October 1945 of the notorious Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling, whose name has become synonymous with traitor. While Quisling is in his dark cell, he is visited by priest Peder Olsen. Their meetings – recorded in a diary written by Olsen that served as a major source for the script – turn into a psychological battle between the humanist and the fascist.

Gard B. Eidsvold (“Troll,” “In Order of Disappearance”) as Quisling and Anders Danielsen Lie (“The Worst Person in the World”) as the priest deliver tour-de-force performances, along with Lisa Carlehed (“The Emigrants”) as Maria Quisling and Lisa Loven Kongsli (“Force Majeure”) as the priest’s wife, Heidi Olsen.