Olav Dalgard

Who was Olav Dalgard?

Olav Dalgard, given name Olaf Hanssen was a Norwegian filmmaker, advocate of Nynorsk, and a literature and art historian.

Dalgard was raised in Oppdal, from the age of three. He earned an M.A. degree in literature and art history at the University of Oslo in 1929. During his studies, he was the chairman of the student Nynorsk association and was active in the Mot Dag movement.

Dalgard worked as a literature critic for the newspapers Dagbladet and Arbeiderbladet. From 1931 on he was the dramatic advisor and instructor at Det Norske Teateret. He studied film in the Soviet Union and in the 1930s produced several films with a socialist message. Dalgard was also active in the Norwegian Labour Party's cultural operations.

During World War II Dalgard was arrested in 1942 and held as a political prisoner by the German occupants and sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

After the war, Dalgard wrote, among other things, a history of Norwegian theater entitled Teateret frå Aiskylos til Ibsen, and theoretical works about film. He was involved in the establishment of the Norwegian Film Institute. Among his most famous works was Gryr i Norden, a dramatization of a strike in Oslo in 1889.