It’s the laugh that gets you.

Roughly halfway through Armand, the debut feature from Norwegian filmmaker Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, we watch someone fall apart. A mother has been called into a parent-teacher conference. Her name is Elisabeth, she’s an actor of some renown, and is now largely associated with a tragedy that left her husband dead. Elisabeth has no idea why she’s been summoned to her child’s school. Soon, the parents of another student arrive. It seems that Armand, the woman’s son, threatened one of his peers.