Rinnan's Rival

– the double agent Karl Adding

Karl Isaevitch was a young man of half-Jewish origin who lived in Trondheim during the war. When the other Jews are sent to the concentration camps, Karl Isaevitch changes his name and becomes double agent Karl Adding, one of Henry Oliver Rinnan's fiercest rivals. Not long ago, Fredrik Lie did not know that his grandfather Karl was one of Norway's most important Gestapo agents. In this film and book, we join Fredrik Lie on a journey into his grandfather's life. It also becomes an opportunity to understand himself and his own mother better.

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Since its release in November 2024, both the film and the book have Rinnan's rival has generated significant national attention, with extensive press coverage. The book sold out its first edition of 3,000 copies in December, and a new edition was released in January 2025. Get in touch for screenings and lectures.

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Complex and engaging

«- The candid exploration in "Rinnan's Rival" is gripping with its humanity, says Sigurd Vik about the war documentary that is currently in cinemas."»

«A different documentary from the increasingly well-stocked shelf of films and series from World War II.»

«Filmmaker Marte Hallem has put in thorough and broad journalistic work in researching Karl Adding.»

«The excellent journalistic work behind finding Fredrik in Stockholm, and getting him involved in this deeply personal documentary project, means that "Rinnan's Rival" has a unique entry into how we as humans carry war with us for generations.«

– P3 / Film Police

«The film is good and it is interesting. The war story told on film is undeniably often the saga of the heroes and the saga of the traitors, perhaps without too many nuances. The nuances have certainly increased in recent years.
But this film moves on. It does so without for a moment excusing any of what Adding did.»

– Nettavisen

«Rinnan's Rival is both enlightening, educational, exciting and varied in both style, expression and form, and is therefore entertaining in a way that similar documentaries can often seem a bit sad and boring. The inclusion of a living grandson, while also depicting Fredrik's somewhat tough life and background, adds an additional layer of emotional and human impact. Rinnan Rival is thus not just "another Norwegian man-war film", which has been debated so much this fall, but rather a type of film and documentary that one respects and understands the need for. It is also fascinating to me that the director is a woman.»

– Movie click

«"The title "Rinnan's Rival" effectively says that this is about someone who challenged Henry Rinnan as the most notorious Norwegian agent in the Gestapo service. What the tabloid title hides, but as the interesting documentary tells, is that the man in question, Karl Adding (1913–43), was a completely different person than the feared torturer and gang leader."«