In February 2024, Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud launched his trilogy about human connections in present day Oslo with Sex, which played in the Berlinale’s Panorama section. The second installment (technically third), Love, was picked for the main competition in Venice (the first time for a Norwegian film since 1986), and appears set to travel far and wide alongside its companion pieces, owing to the general popularity of Nordic cinema on an international scale.
Each film in the trilogy focuses on its own story in a completely standalone manner, something the movie highlights in the opening credits, with the titles of all three appearing on the screen before Sex and Dreams (the heretofore unreleased second episode) disappear to leave just Love. And it is indeed a film about love, even though the opening scene makes it clear the physical angle will also be explored, as a doctor explains to a cancer patient that the impending treatment – removal of the prostate – will entail infertility and erectile dysfunction.
The doctor is Marianne, one of the two main characters. The other is the young gay nurse Tor, who commutes to work every day with the ferry. Part of his daily (or rather, nightly) routine includes checking out Grindr while on the ferry, although not necessarily for a quick hookup: intimacy and conversations have their importance. Impressed by his worldview, Marianne – who is tentatively interested in a divorced father of two she’s been set up with – ponders her own thoughts on the nature of relationships. Meanwhile, Tor finds himself in a bit of a bind when the personal and the professional start intersecting in an ethically questionable manner.
Marianne is the kind of role likely to raise the international profile of actress and singer Andrea Braein Hovig, a regular collaborator of the director who also appeared in the Cannes hit Sick of Myself, and who really gets to showcase her range as the character arc becomes an emotional whirlwind. Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen, who also was in Haugerud’s 2019 film Beware of Children, is revelatory as Tor, exploring the gamut of nuances that come with his perception of societal and interpersonal norms, with a performance that gains potency when the relationship with the older man Bjorn (Lars Jacob Holm, who reunites with Haugerud after acting in his 2012 feature debut I Belong).
Equally important, basically a character in its own right, is the city of Oslo, warmly framed images of which accompany the opening and closing credits. In fact, the intermingling of the human protagonists revolves partly around the imminent celebrations of the Norwegian capital’s centenary (although founded circa 1000 A.D., it was called Kristiania from 1877 until January 1, 1925), and Tor’s introduction highlights how the city brings together people from all parts of the country (an early conversation topic between the two leads concerns their differing dialects).
The story unfolds over the course of a few weeks in the month of August (the movie basically ends, in-universe, a week or so before its real-world premiere took place), with the summery vibe feeding the energy of the storytelling and the vitality of the performances. The script is verbose in places, but body language is just as fundamental as the correlation between physical attraction and emotional attachment, and the various mixtures thereof, creates an increasingly affecting crescendo about the intricacies of contemporary connections. It may not solve the mysteries of the heart, but, much like Oslo’s rebranding a century ago, it puts a relatively new and riveting spin on something that’s been around for eons.
Director & Screenwriter: Dag Johan Haugerud
Cast: Andrea Bræin Hovig, Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen, Marte Engebrigtsen, Lars Jacob Holm, Thomas Gullestad, Marian Saastad Ottesen, Morten Svartveit
Producers: Yngve Sæther, Hege Hauff Hvattum
Cinematography: Frédéric Noirhomme
Production design: Tuva Hølmebakk
Costume design: Julia Dunoyer
Music: Peder Kjellsby
Sound: Yvonne Stenberg, Gisle Tveito
Production companies: Motlys
World sales: m-appeal
Venue: Venice Film Festival (Competition)
In Norwegian
119 minutes
