Synopsis:

Norwegian artist Edvard Munch began expressionism and established himself as northern Europe's most maligned and controversial artist roughly between the years 1884 and 1894. This film is an intensely personal biographical recreation of the early years of struggle endured by Munch, crucified by critics and public alike in the late nineteenth century, in battle as a young man with puritanical Norwegian society and beset with various family tragedies and resultant depressions, all the while grappling to give expression to his own artistic voice. Watkins' portrait has been considered by many to be the most successful portrayal of the artistic process ever depicted on film, speaking not only to a specific creator and his milieu but to the filmmaker's own artistic enterprise and to intricate issues of contemporary life.