Dreams (Sex Love) (Drama)

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Director: Dag Johan Haugerud
Producer: Yngve Sæther,Hege Hauff Hvattum
Screenwriter: Dag Johan Haugerud
Cinematographer: Cecilie Semec
Key Cast: Anne Marit Jacobsen,Ane Dahl Torp,Selome Emnetu

A teenage girl gives voice to her desires in this charming, thought-provoking Norwegian coming-of-age drama.

Johanne, 17, has written a novel in which a high school student falls in love with her newly arrived French teacher, Johanna – an intimate bildungsroman of sexual awakening, budding obsession and eventual flirtation that, in the specificity of its details, appears to blur fact and fiction. Unbowed by any notion of shame, Johanne shares the story with the two most important people in her life: her single mother, Kristin, and grandmother Karin, herself a published poet. Startled by this daring work, Kristin and Karin begin to wonder if its events are real or fantasy. But as they attempt to uncover the truth, they are forced to face the lack of passion in their own lives.

Winner of both the Golden Bear and FIPRESCI Prize at this year’s Berlinale – the first Norwegian film to ever claim the top honour – Dreams (Sex Love) marks the final chapter in Dag Johan Haugerud’s Sex/Love/Dreams trilogy. Hailed for its uniquely sensitive depiction of a transformative first crush, as well as its intelligent exploration of writing, inspiration and the power of taking control of one’s own narrative, this achingly empathetic film makes for a brilliant culmination to Haugerud’s disarming cinematic triptych.

“[A] smart, sensitive queer coming-of-age story … For anyone with sharp recollections of the heady rush of first love and the obsessive fixation on one person to the exclusion of all else, Dreams will strike chords.” – The Hollywood Reporter