Sex (Drama)
Director: Dag Johan Haugerud
Producer: Yngve Sæther,Hege Hauff Hvattum
Screenwriter: Dag Johan Haugerud
Cinematographer: Cecilie Semec
Key Cast: Jan Gunnar Røise,Siri Forberg,Thorbjørn Harr
In this first tale in an acclaimed Norwegian trilogy exploring unexamined desires, a pair of middle-aged men wrestle with their identities and sexualities.
Two unnamed Oslo co-workers – a chimneysweep and his manager – are ostensibly straight middle-aged men with wives and children. Yet, in long on-the-job conversations, they open up to one another about recent experiences that have challenged their conceptions of gender and sexuality: for one, a random first sexual encounter with a man; for the other, dreams of inhabiting the body of a woman. These experiences create ripple effects in their lives, from how each man relates to his sons to how each is understood by his wife.
Premiering to acclaim at Berlin, the first entry in novelist-turned-filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud’s Oslo trilogy (Sex/Dreams/Love) is a thoughtful, sensitive exploration of masculinity and identity. There’s no sex in Sex – just nuanced, intimate discussions in which deftly penned dialogue unpacks deep themes like support vs judgement, the fragility of our self-concepts and the place sex holds in responsibility-laden adult lives.
“[Turns] the male character study on its head with a gentle subversiveness that recalls what The Worst Person in the World did with romantic comedy … A smart movie with a lot on its mind.” – The Hollywood Reporter